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Chapter Text

There was a knock on the door of his room “Prince Roman, prince Logan has arrived, he desires to see you”

“Let him in” ordered Roman, he finished brushing his hair and put his crown on, the door opened soon after revealing Logan.

“Good afternoon Roman” he said, getting closer to him, he bowed in front of him before taking his hand and kissing it.

Roman blushed at the act “Lo, we’ve talked about this, there’s no need for formalities”

Logan smiled and stood gay straight “Apologies, it’s hard to remember we’re friends, given the long time we’ve been apart recently”

“Are you saying you missed me?”

“In simple words, yes, I did miss you Roman”

Roman smiled and hugged the taller guy, Logan was the prince of the neighbor kingdom, he and Roman have been friends since childhood, and neither of them was oblivious to the fact that their families wanted them to marry someday.

Logan hugged back, they pulled apart after some seconds, they spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the last years, on which they both have been way too busy to visit each other.

When night fell, they both were at the top of the highest tower, looking at the stars and the lights of the kingdom, Roman leaned to the taller prince and rested his head on the others shoulder “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It is, I’ve always loved the stars” said Logan.

“Oh, yeah they’re really pretty too” said Roman looking up at them “but I was talking about the kingdom” he returned his sight to the town.

Logan looked down “Could you explain?”

Roman smiled “every single person in the town is able to do whatever they want they don’t have to worry if the smallest action will change the destiny of their whole kingdom, they’re free”

“I’m guessing this is not just about the kingdom”

“It’s just” Roman sighed “I don’t think I’m ready for all this responsibilities, I don’t know if I’ll be able to rule this people, I would rather have a normal life”

Logan smiled at the other prince “You are, you’ll see, this kingdom will be so lucky to have you as their king”

Roman looked at Logan’s eyes and smiled back “Thank you Lo”

“I’m just telling the truth” Logan said, resting his head on Romans “but you're welcome”

Logan had to go back to his kingdom the next morning, Roman watched from the window as his carriage got further away, and just as the day before, he was interrupted by a knock on the door “come in Thomas”

As he heard his name, Thomas went into the prince’s room, he was his teacher, so he had known Roman since he was a kid “Good morning your highness”

“Good morning” said Roman, getting away from the window and turning to see Thomas, who had a cape on his hands, but Roman didn’t question it “What are you going to teach me today?”

“Actually, I accidentally heard your conversation with prince Logan yesterday, and I’m sorry about it, but, I figured out that if you’re so curious about the people on your kingdom, we could walk around town instead of your lesson of today” said Thomas.

Roman’s eyes shone and a smiled appeared on his face “Really?! Is dad going to allow it?”
Thomas smiled “I’ve already took care of everything, we’ll go when you’re ready but” he said extending the cape on his hands to the prince “You’ll have to go undercover”

The prince took the cape “Of course, I’ll just put this on and we can go” Thomas nodded and walked out of the room.

Roman and Thomas got out of the carriage and it went back to the castle, Roman had the cape on, so it will be hard for someone to recognize him, they walked through the crowd, Thomas showed him some places he used to visit a lot before he started living in the castle ”Why don't you walk around here while I buy us some drinks?” Said Thomas once they arrived to the center of the town.

The prince nodded exited and Thomas walked to a small store, Roman looked around all the people, he walked between them without getting too far away from where his teacher was, the crowd started to grow rapidly and Roma was getting uncomfortable between all the people, he wasn’t used to that.

He walked to an alley playing with his ring, something he did when he was nervous, he leaned on the wall and accidentally took his ring off and it fell to the floor “great” Roman kneeled and picked his ring up, but he noticed something else by the corner of his eye, he turned his head and looked at it, a small person, running close to the wall, the prince got closer to it, looked around and then scooped it up after he was sure no one was looking at him.

The small person yelped and struggled in Roman’s grip “shh shh, I’m not going to hurt you” the prince hid behind some boxes and opened his hand to see the tiny closer “wow, you’re so small”

The tiny backed away from Roman and almost fell from his hand, Roman caught it with his other hand “careful little guy, you don’t want to fall”

The small person looked at the side of the human’s hand, it walked back to the middle of the hand seeing the distance between it and the floor, it looked at Roman’s eyes and he could now see it’s face clearly.

“Oh god, we’re identical” he said, taking off the hood of the cape, revealing his face to the small being who gasped as he saw what Roman meant.

They both had freckles, a tan shade of skin color, light blue eyes and their faces had the exact same form, they could have been mistaken for twins if it wasn’t for the hair, Roman’s was dark brown and the small person’s was light brown, the fact the tiny was wearing glasses, even if Roman did use glasses for reading, and of course the size.

“Y-You’re right” finally said the small person, it seemed this weird coincidence got all the fear away from it- him?- Roman wasn’t sure how to call him anymore “I-I’m Patton” he said, with a small (heh) smile on his face.

“Roman” he said grinning, he was glad Patton was kind of trusting him.

“Roman? L-like the prince?”

Roman laughed nervously “yeah, it must be because I’m the prince”

Patton’s eyes went wide, Roman was surprised such a tiny being could open his eyes that much “Y-Y-You’re the prince?!” He played nervously with his hands and then bowed awkwardly “It’s a... a pleasure to meet you sir”

“No no please” Roman used his finger to raise Patton’s head “I don’t really like formalities, and I’m not going to force my tiny doppelgänger to use them”

Patton flinched at the touch but giggled at Roman's comment ”thanks, I'm not really familiar with royalty and what you have to do in their presence, I'm just a normal civilian, if you don't take in count the size factor of course”

Roman smiled ”well, big or small, you're another one or my citizens, and I'll treat you like it”

”Roman!” Screamed Thomas catching the prince's attention, he turned around to see his teacher who was getting closer to him, forgetting about the tiny man on his hands for a moment ”There you are, I've been looking for y-” he stopped talking, focusing on Roman's hands.

The prince followed Thomas's sight ”Oh right, uhm... Thomas this is Patton” he said, raising his hands.

Thomas looked around and pushed Roman further into the alley ”Your highness, what are you doing with a borrower?”

”Borrower?” Asked Roman, unfamiliar with the term.

”H-How did you?“ Asked Patton, no human was supposed to know about them.

”Don't worry, there was a family of borrowers in my old house, I know how to keep the secret” he said to Patton.

Patton sighed, more or less relieved ”I-I'm not quite sure I'm understanding” said Roman, still confused.

”A borrower lives in human's walls and depend on them, no offence”

”Don't worry, we collect crumbs of food and small materials to survive” explained Patton.

Roman sighed dramatically ”that sounds horrible! I can't believe you've been living like this!”

The borrower shrugged ”It has been this way since I can remember, besides I don't have to limit to one house, I gather stuff from all around the kingdom”

”But still, you shouldn't just survive, you should be able to live your life, enjoy it” said Roman, gesturing.

”I mean...” said Patton ”can't really do much when you're four inches tall”

Roman gasped, startling the borrower and the other human ”I've had the greatest idea, you could come with me and live in the castle!”

”Uhh... I'm not sure that's the best idea your highness” said Thomas.

”It'll be perfect! I can take care of you, I'll get you a proper place to live, and you'll never had to worry about survive again!”

Patton had to admit it did sounded good, but he didn't actually hate his life, and he couldn't leave Virgil behind either ”I appreciate the offer Roman, but I'm fine here, and that sounds like I'll be some sort of pet”

”What?” Roman made some offended princey noises ”Of course I wouldn't treat you like a pet! I would just give you food, a proper home to sleep, proper hygiene, and- you're right it does sound like a pets life...” he said and then groaned.

“Then, if all of this is over, I think we should return to the castle” said Thomas.

“Already? But I don’t want to leave Patton here...”

Patton smiled up at the prince “It’s not that bad, I’ll be fine here, I’ve always been”

Roman sighed “fine, should I just leave you in the ground?”

“Near those boxes please” said Patton pointing at them.

“Alright” Roman kneeled and left Patton in the floor.

Patton got closer to his entrance, he turned to see Roman “It was a pleasure to meet you Roman” he said with a smile, he opened the small door in the wall and was about to go inside.

“Wait” said Roman, stopping the borrower before he could enter the walls “will I ever see you again?”

Patton smiled, he doubted they would cross paths again soon, but he was hoping it happened “What if I see you here next week?”

Roman’s face lighten up “That sounds perfect!” He got his fist closer to the borrower, only his pinky finger was extended “promise?”

The borrower touched the human’s pinky with his own “Promise”

Chapter Text

Thomas knocked on the prince's door, opening it and going inside when he was allowed too, Roman was at his desk working on something, he turned to see who had come in, smiling when he saw his teacher ”Thomas! Come here I want to show you something”

Thomas walked to where the prince was, he leaned forward and saw what Roman had on his hands, it was a tiny suit, some of that stitches where misplaced or weren't done correctly, but it was a good work.

”I wanted to give something to Patton, do you think he would like it?”

”I'm sure he'll love it, and it seems you're exited to see him again tomorrow”

It has been almost a week since the human's encounter with the borrower, Thomas convinced Roman to keep him as a secret, but since then, their lessons have only been the two of them talking about him and borrowers most of the time.

The prince nodded ”I am! There's so many things I want to ask him”

”Well, right now your father asked to see you, so I would go if I were you”

”right” Roman stood up ”thanks for notifying me, I'll see you later for our lesson” he walked out of his room and to the throne room, when he arrived, the royal advisor, Dee, was in front of the closed doors.

”Good morning prince Roman, the king requested to talk to you in a more private place, I'll guide you if you follow me” he said.

”Thank you Dee” he started to walk and the prince followed him, they went to the lowest levels of the castle, where the employers of the castle lived, Roman was confused, neither he or his father went there at all ”Are you sure my father's here?”

”Of course, I'm just following his instructions” Dee opened a door ”After you your highness”

Roman doubted but he went inside of the room, it was dark but Roman could still look around, it was some kind of workshop ”I don't think I see my father” he said, turning to see the advisor.

Dee grinned and closed the door behind him ”That's because he isn't here, I just needed an excuse to bring you here”

The prince wanted to ask what he meant, but before he could say anything, something hit him on the head from behind, and he fell to the floor unconscious.

Dee smiled ”Good job Remus, that will keep him still while we work”

Remus smiled with his morningstar on his hands ”thanks dad, do you want me tie him? I want to tie him!” Said the kid jumping exited.

”Yes you can” Dee ruffled his son's hair and let him do the job, Remus tied the prince o a chair and Dee prepared his potions.

Roman woke up with a pain on his head and neck, he struggled to open his eyes, when he finally managed to open them he found the curious face of a kid of ten years or so in front of him ”Dad! He's awake!” He screamed.

”W-what? Where am I?” He said looking around, remembering the events before he fell unconscious, it was the same place where Dee took him, he saw him walking towards him.

”Finally, I couldn't proceed if he was unconscious” he stood in front of the prince and lifted his chin with his hand, forcing Roman to look at him in the eyes ”Good morning your highness”

Roman started to feel fear ”What are you doing Dee? What are you going to do to me?”

”Oh, relax Roman, I would never hurt you, I just need you out of the game, forever” he let go of the prince and walked to a cauldron in the middle of the room ”I bet you didn't know I can do magic” he said, filling a glass bottle with a liquid from the cauldron ”But you did know your father wants you to marry Logan don't you?” He turned to see Roman again ”And I can't let that happen, Remus” he called his son and crouched down to his height, handing him the bottle ”would you like to do the honors?”

Remus nodded happily and grabbed the bottle ”now, if you stay still, we'll be gentle” Dee walked behind the prince and lifted his head by pulling his hair ”If you don't behave, then I won't be so merciful”

”now drink princey” said Remus, putting the bottle close to Roman's lips.

The prince kept his lips sealed and kept moving to avoid the liquid from entering from his mouth.

Dee groaned and used his free hand to force Roman’s mouth to open, Remus poured the potion on the prince’s mouth and got away from him, leaving the empty bottle on a table “Can I keep him when he stops shrinking?”

“Of course” Dee let go of the prince and petted his son’s head.

“Sh-Shrinking?!” said Roman, he felt a tingling sensation running through his body, the ropes around his wrists and legs felt looser and, slowly, his feet rose from the floor “Why are you doing this?”

Dee smirked, “Isn’t it obvious? To be the king, with you unable to lead and out of the way, your father will look for a solution, and I’m going to be his best option, I have tons of gold and I could end with the economic problems in the kingdom, and if I get bored of sharing the power, your father can always join you”

Roman’s hands were free by now, he was filled with rage and didn’t think when he hit Dee on the face, he jumped of the chair and started to run towards the door.

Dee growled when the prince’s fist hit his face “Go get him Remus!”

The kid ran to Roman, who was struggling to reach the door handle, Remus hugged him from behind and lifted the shrinking prince “gotcha!” he said giggling.

Roman yelped, he struggled to get out of the ten-year old’s grip, but he kept getting smaller and smaller, which meant Remus’s grip was becoming stronger whit each inch he lost.

Dee’s son walked to his father with the prince, who was barely half of Remus’s height by now “Good job hun” Dee reached for Roman and lifted him away from the kid’s arms “nice try, but it seems you’re not in the place to be doing that without consequences anymore, and you don’t want to see me mad”

Roman’s breath got accelerated, he got small enough so that Dee could hold him with one hand “tell me your highness, will you behave?” said the royal advisor, his grip around Roman got stronger “or will you suffer the consequences?”

The prince screamed in pain, he struggled to keep tears from falling out of his eyes “I-I’ll behave! I’ll be good and obey! Just stop please…”

Dee smirked and loosened his grip “Good, was that so hard?” the prince had stopped shrinking by now, ending at 4 or so inches, Dee crouched and extended his hand with Roman to his son “All yours Remus, treat him nicely, unless he misbehaves, if that happens, you’re allowed to punish him, but I need him alive, all clear?”

Remus nodded “All clear dad, I won’t kill him I promise” he grabbed the prince and got out of the workshop, he walked through the hallways and went into another room, his room.

Roman looked around from the kid’s hands as he walked to the small desk on a side of the room, he focused on what was on top of it, a cage, and the prince knew it had his name all over it.

The ten-year old opened the cage’s door and left his new pet inside, he closed the cage and crouched to be eye level with Roman “I'm going to get something to eat, I’ll be right back and then we can play!” the child smiled and left the room.

Roman sat in a corner of the cage, he couldn’t believe this was happening to him, he couldn’t believe he had been captured.

Chapter Text

”What do you mean he ran away?!” Asked the king to his advisor.

”This letter was found on the prince's room” Dee said, handing him a pink envelope ”It clearly describes he was not ready for a responsibility as important such as being king”

Emile took the letter and read it ”My poor son, I really hope he's okay, Thomas” he said, catching the attention of Roman's teacher, who was also the person in charge of communication with other kingdoms ”I need you to send a letter to king Remy, he needs to know what happened, tell him to keep his eyes opened, Roman might go to his kingdom, and... the wedding is canceled until my son is found”

”Of course sir” Thomas took Roman's letter and walked out of the room to his own, once he was there, he left the card on his desk and picked up his stuff to write, he still didn’t believe Roman could have done something like that, he was excited to see Patton and his relationship with his father was good, it made no sense.

After some time, the smell the letter had filled the room, Roman used his rose fragrance on the letters he wrote, it was his personal touch, but this smell wasn’t the one of roses, it smelled more like lavenders, which was weird, why would Roman change his usual smell for something so important as a ‘I ran away’ letter?

Something was not right about all of this, Dee was planning something, that was for sure, there was one time when he coughed him collecting magical plants, Thomas knew them well because he had studied magic at some point, he even tried to make a growing potion for the borrowers living on his house, Thomas thought as he finished the letters for king Remy and prince Logan.

He went outside and was about to give them to the royal messenger when an idea popped into his head, Patton looked exactly the same as Roman, if he could finish that growing potion, Patton could take the prince’s place until he figured out what really happened.

He hurried back to his room and looked for his magic materials, and started working on the potion, wasting no seconds until it was ready, now all he had to do was convince Patton to do it, but that was something he would do tomorrow.

Patton ran through the walls, he was excited to see Roman again, the borrower never thought he could be friends with a human, much less the prince himself, he was so distracted on his thoughts that he didn’t notice when he crashed with someone, Patton looked up at him “Sorry Virge, are you okay?”

Virgil cleaned his clothes and picked up the stuff he had borrowed “I’m alright” Virgil and Patton borrowed in the same zone of the kingdom, so they knew each other since years, they even managed to get a place to live together, Virgil looked at the other borrower “Where are you going with such a hurry?”

“Oh” however, Patton didn’t mention his encounter with Roman, as he knew Virgil would freak out “I just need to borrow something urgently, I need it for something I’m making”

“What is it? Maybe I have some left” said Virgil.

Patton was starting to panic at this point, he didn’t like to lie and he wasn’t very good at it “I-I checked and you didn’t have any either”

Virgil raised an eyebrow “You checked my stuff? That’s not likely of you”

“I’m sorry, I told you it’s urgent, and now I really have to go get it so bye Virgil” he said running away “I’ll see you at home!”

Virgil shook his head slightly and sighed, but continued his way, Patton would explain if he wanted to.

Patton sighed relieved as he made his way to his meeting spot with Roman, he got out of the walls and saw the human was already here, sitting and waiting for him “Sorry I’m late, I got distracted on the way here”

The borrower looked up as the human turned to see him, but he wasn’t Roman, he was Thomas “Oh hi Thomas, where’s Roman?”

Thomas lowered his hand for Patton to climb on it “I don’t know, one of the people in the castle found a letter in his room saying he ran away”

“Wait what?” he asked as he climbed on the human’s hand “why would he do that? it makes no sense”

“I know, that’s why I don’t believe it” Thomas raised his hand, leaving Patton at eye level “I think something else happened to him, but I need your help to find out what”

The borrower looked confused “how would I be any help?”

“Well…” Thomas sighed trying to find the words for what he was about to say “I need you to replace him until he appears, and listen to me before you say no, or that I’m crazy or something”

Patton nodded “okay, explain”

Thomas smiled when the borrower gave him a chance “Roman has to marry the prince from the neighbor kingdom, Logan, in order to fix the financial problems of the kingdom, they have been friends for a long time and the agreement had already been sealed, but, with Roman’s supposed disappearance, the wedding has to be canceled, and Logan’s father, king Remy, isn’t a very patient person, if the wedding isn’t done by the end of this month, he will break the deal and the kingdom will be bankrupt, I need you to act like Roman until I find him to keep the deal before it’s too late, please”

The borrower tried to proses all the information “B-But what about my size, surely someone will notice”

“I have something to fix that, with you at human size and with a wig to make your hair darker, you will look just like Roman, no one will ever know”

Patton thought for a moment, he wanted to help if the prince was really in danger “I-I’ll do it, if you’re sure something happened to him, I’ll do anything to help Roman”

“Thank you, now if you don’t mind, I need to put you in my pocket to go back to the castle”
The borrower gulped but nodded, it was the easiest way to avoid being seen, Thomas opened the pocket of his cape and left Patton inside, he stood up and started to walk back to the castle.

Thomas had left Patton in the prince’s room while he went for the growing potion, the borrower was amazed with every detail, the room was huge even for a human, and everything was so fancy, Patton used the sheets to climb down from the bed to the floor, he walked around and looked at everything closely, almost regretting Roman’s offer of staying here.

The human went into the room with the potion, surprised and scared when Patton was not on the bed “Pat?”

Patton got closer to the door for Thomas to see him “I’m here, sorry I just wanted to walk around”

“Don’t worry, I just can’t have another prince disappearing” Thomas sat on the floor as the borrower got closer “are you ready?”

“Are you sure it works? And that it’s safe?”

“It is” Thomas used Patton’s small cup, that he asked for before, and poured some of the potion on it “You just have to drink it and you’ll be human sized in no minute” he extended the cup to Patton.

He sighed and took it, looking at the liquid “Here I go then” without thinking it twice, Patton drank the potion, he left the cup on the floor as a warm feeling spread through his body.
He looked up at Thomas just to see he was already as tall as him while he was sitting, he continued to grow as he looked around, amazed at how everything was becoming his size with inch he gained, he stopped growing and looked at Thomas as he stood up “I told you it worked”

“Wow” he was looking at Thomas eye to eye “This is awesome! I never thought I could be human sized one day!” Patton walked around the room, he stopped once he was in front of the desk, one particular object caught his attention, he picked it up “What is this?”

Thomas looked at what Patton had on his hands “Roman made it for you, he wanted you to have a nice suit and he really tried his best to do it”

“Was I really that small?” said the ex-borrower looking down at the piece of clothing, Roman did a very good job with it “Do you think he’ll be alright? Wherever he is…”

“He will” said Thomas, reassuring his friend “He’s a very strong and smart person” he walked to a box on the desk and opened it, getting a wig out of it “And with this, you’re ready”

Patton took the wig and put it on, he looked at himself in a mirror and smiled slightly “We’re still missing a small detail for this plan” he said turning to see Thomas “I don’t know anything about being a prince”

Thomas smiled “Don’t worry about that” he walked to a bookshelf and picked a thick book, opening it and bringing it closer to Patton “It's all here in the Princes Book of Etiquette, let's begin”

He sat on the bed and Patton sat next to him, paying attention to the book the other one had “no nagging, bragging, sweating, fretting, slipping, tripping, slurping, burping, twittering or frittering allowed. Stay present, stay pleasant, stay proud” Read Thomas.

“I- I don’t think I can remember all of this” Said Patton.

“Of course you can, I believe in you” said Thomas “To be a prince is to know which spoon to use” he kept reading, turning the pages and showing the pictures to Patton “to be a prince is a thousand pair of shoes, to maintain a regal gait, leave the parsley on your plate, and be charming, but detached and yet amused” Thomas stood up, leaving the book on the bed and offering his hand to Patton “to be a prince is to never be confused”

Patton took his teacher’s hand and he dragged him around the room “Do a plie and never fall” he kept saying, Patton tried his best to follow his instructions “don’t ever stray from protocol, all through the day there's just one way you must behave "Do keep a grip and never crack, stiff upper lip and arch the back, bend from above, and always wear your gloves, and wave” Thomas handed Patton a pair of gloves and he put them on, imitating Thomas on the way he waved.

Thomas got behind Patton “shoulders back and, tummy in and, pinky out and, lift the chin and, slowly turn the head from side to side” he indicated Patton the way to do it, smiling when he followed.

“I see now” he said, smiling back at Thomas.

“Breathing gently, stepping lightly, smile brightly, nod politely, never show a thing you feel inside” said Thomas as he opened the prince’s wardrobe and got out a couple of outfits “To be a Prince is to always look your best” Thomas looked between the clothes and Patton, handing him and outfit and pushing him behind a screen “to be a princess is to never get to rest, sit for a portrait, never squirm, sleep on a mattress extra firm, speak and be clever, never at a loss for words” he said while Patton changed “Curtsy to every count and lord, learn how to play the harpsichord, sing lullabies, and always harmonize in thirds” he said singing the last word.

Patton got out from behind the screen, changed and already looking like a prince “Thirds, thirds” he sang, harmonizing with Thomas.

“Do a plié and don't” continued Thomas.

“Ever, ever, ever fall!” said Patton, finishing Thomas’s sentence and doing the plié perfectly this time.

Thomas smiled and continued “Never show dismay” he extended his hand to Patton.

Patton took it “And be there when people call!” continuing with the rules again.

“Be prepared whatever royal life will bring” he said as he started doing simple ballroom dancing steps “do keep a grip and don't”

“Ever, ever, ever crack!” said Patton, following the steps his teacher did.

Thomas spun Patton “Take a dainty sip”

“Never ever turn your back!”

“There's a time and place and way for everything!” Thomas let go of Patton and walked to Roman’s wardrobe once more “To be a princess is to never make your bed” he said taking out one of the prince’s crowns and walking to Patton “to be a princess is to always use your head” Thomas put the crown on Patton and looked at him, he was sure this was going to work, it had to, and Patton was going to be an awesome temporary prince, he already knew all the manners.

Chapter Text

Thomas took a deep breath as he opened the doors of the throne room “King Emile, I have news for you"

Dee growled as his conversation with the king was interrupted “Would you mind? We´re in the middle of something”

“It’s okay Dee, we can continue later” Emile looked from Dee to Thomas “Did king Remy replied already?”

“It's better than that your majesty” Thomas turned to the door “You can come in”

Patton walked into the room, wearing the wig and outfit from before, officially impersonating Roman.

Both the king and his advisor gasped simultaneously “Roman!” Emile stood up and ran to ‘his son to hug him “Don’t you dare to ever do something like that again, I was so worried”

The human sized borrower got startled from the sudden movement, but he hugged back after some seconds “I’m sorry for running away, it wasn’t the right choice”

Emile broke the hug and looked at Patton “promise me you’ll talk to me when something bothers you”

Thomas noticed Dee's mad expression “What’s the matter, aren’t you relieved prince Roman is back?”

“Of course I am” he lied.

“This means prince Logan’s visit is still on foot right?” asked Thomas.

“Of course!” said Emile smiling “But right now I want to hear everything about how you found Roman”

Thomas smiled “I’ll be glad to share every detail”

Emile, Patton and Thomas got out of the throne room and into the dining room while Dee went to his son’s room, he had to make sure this was not a scam.

”Now tell me, where did you find my son Thomas?” Asked Emile as he sat on one of the chairs, being followed by the other two men.

”I wanted to deliver the letters for King Remy and Prince Logan myself, to explain the situation better, I found him on the way to their kingdom, he wanted to talk to the prince, right Roman?” Lied Thomas.

Patton nodded ”That's right, he always gives me good advices, and I didn't want to disappear without him knowing”

The king smiled softly and cupped Patton's cheek with his hand ”Oh hun, I can't believe I didn't notice something was bothering you, I'm such a terrible father”

”No” said Patton, not even thinking on what he was doing ”Of courses you're not, you have always been there for me, I guess I'm just pretty good at hiding how I truly feel, and I promise I won't do it anymore, you're an awesome father, never doubt it again”

Emile smiled and did his best to hug his son once more without standing up ”My god since when are you this wise? You have really grown up a lot”

Patton smiled back, he couldn't remember the last time he had a dad who loved him, if felt king of nice.

The rest of the day was normal, Patton had the best dinner of his life, there were tons of plates and food, he even felt bad when he didn’t finish part of his food because he was hungry, even if Thomas told him it was fine.

Then he went to sleep, he wanted Thomas to stay with him, he was a little afraid of staying alone in a place so big as Roman’s room, once again his teacher reassured him everything was fine and he was right, Patton slept like a baby on Roman’s huge bed.

The next morning, one of the maids went to leave the prince’s breakfast to his room, waking Patton up “All of this for me?” Asked Patton and the maid nodded “B-But, don’t you want something?”

“Me? I could not your highness I just-“

“Please, there’s a lot of food, here” Patton took one of the pieces of bread and handed it to the maid “take it”

She smiled slightly as she took it “Thank you” the maid was about to go but turned around when she got to the doorframe “Your bath is being prepared, do you want bubbles, mineral salts or flower essences?”

“Everything!” said Patton smiling.

After having breakfast and taking a bath, Patton got dressed and waited for Thomas to appear, he knew prince Logan was coming today and he didn’t want to mess it up, he waited for hours and nothing “C’mon Thomas… I can’t do this without you”

There was a knock on the door “Come in” said Patton, but his hopes of being Thomas who was behind the door went away when he saw the royal advisor, Dee, he remembered he was called.

“Good morning your highness, the king sent me to escort you to the throne room to meet with prince Logan”

“He’s already here?” Patton asked and Dee nodded “Alright” Patton took Dee’s arm and they walked to the throne room.

Dee opened the doors “your highness, Prince Roman”

Patton walked inside, he saw two more people than yesterday, who he assumed where king Remy and prince Logan, since Patton wasn’t wearing his glasses, Thomas asked if he could see without them and he could even if everything was a bit blurry so they decided to leave them while he was supposed to be Roman, he didn’t notice a small bump on the carpet and tripped, almost falling to the floor if it wasn’t because someone caught him.

“Since when are you so clumsy Roman?” Patton looked up, blushing when he noticed he was just a couple of inches away from Logan “You have to be more careful”

“I’m sorry” Patton stood straight but didn’t let go of the others arms “Thank you for catching me”

“Prince Roman” said king Remy “The last time I saw you, you were just a kid, I can’t believe how big you are now”

Patton chuckled slightly and got apart from Logan “It’s a pleasure to see you again too king Remy”

Emile smiled “King Remy and I need to arrange some issues, so we’ll leave you two alone” he stood up and guided Remy out of the room.

“I want to show you something” Logan grabbed Patton’s hand and took him to the music room, in the middle of it, there was a huge white and golden piano “Remember when we stayed here after our music lessons, we wrote the silliest songs”

“I do, it was fun” lied Patton.

Logan sat at the stool in front of the piano “well, I wrote a song for you, It’s not quite silly, but I hope you like it”

The prince let his fingers dance trough the keys of the instrument, a sweet melody could be heard as he accompanied it with his serenate yet beautiful voice “Once a guy met a lad, you're a gentle one, said he” he looked at Patton, as quoting something Roman had said before “In my heart I'd be glad, if you loved me for me”

Patton looked at Logan’s eyes as he sang, resting his arms on the side of the piano and leaning on them “Could I be the one you're seeking? Will I be the one you choose? Can you tell my heart is speaking? My eyes will give you clues”

Logan had closed his eyes on the second verse “What you see may be deceiving, truth lies underneath the skin, hope will blossom by believing, the heart that lies within” He opened them and blushed slightly as he caught ‘Roman’ looking at him.

“I'll be yours” he continued as he moved to one side of the stool, making space for the other one to sit “together we shall always be as one” Patton sat next to Logan as he continued singing, his eyes never left the prince’s.

The human sized borrower rested his head on Logan’s shoulder, closing his eyes and singing the next line with him “if you love me for me”

Logan smiled and lifted Patton’s chin delicately with his finger “If you love me for me” they sang together before kissing.

Their lips touched and their tongues danced on each other’s mouth delicately, both of them trapped on a sweet and innocent but still passionate kiss.

Patton got away from Logan’s lips, the only thing he wanted was to go back to them and continued, but Logan wrote, played and sang that for Roman, not for him, Logan loved Roman, the person he was pretending to be, and he started to wonder if it really was the best choice, he started to regret taking Roman’s vacant.

Chapter Text

”I'm back!” Said Remus as he entered his room, getting Roman's attention ”I convinced the cooks to give me some cookies while they finished my lunch, do you want some?”

The kid sat next to his desk and opened the cage's door, leaving some cookie crumbs in the floor next to the prince.

Roman looked at them and kicked them away ”I don't want your food”

”But you need to eat something, you heard dad, I can't let you die” Remus picked Roman up and got him out of the cage and on his open palm, he grabbed the crumbs ”Open wide” he said as he got the cookie closer to the prince's mouth, practically forcing him to eat it.

Roman struggled to get the food away ”Fine, I'll eat, but I can do it alone” he grabbed the crumb from the kid's fingers, trying not to focus on the fact that he had to use his both hands to grab it, and started to eat it.

Remus smiled ”Good boy” he said petting Roman's head, he grabbed a full cookie and ate it ”We'll play when you finish your food” he said with his mouth full.

Roman didn't like this, he felt like some kind of pet, and it was clear the kid thought he was one, he started to wonder if his absence had been noticed by now, or if someone was looking for him, he didn't notice he finished eating while he thought, but Remus did.

”Well done! Now we can go out and play!” The ten-year old giggled and left Roman in the table, he stood up and opened a small chest, looking for the toys he wanted to play with.

Roman stood up and looked around, there was a scarf hanging from the table and it was long enough to get to the floor, if he managed to escape, his father would force Dee to make him normal sized again and he could continue with his life like anything of this ever happened.

The prince ran to the scarf, but he was lifted from the back of his shirt before he could make it “Oh no Roman, you have to stay close to me, I don’t want to lose you”

Roman could do noting more than stay still as Remus stuffed his toys on a bag “Okay, now we’re ready, I’m sure dad wont mind if we play outside, but you have to be quiet okay?” The kid left Roman on his bag and closed it, getting out of his room.

“And now the brave knight fights the big and bad monster! Rawr!” Remus moved his dragon action figure close to Roman, who apparently was playing the role of a night, he was holding a toy sword and wearing a helmet that belonged to one of the kid‘s toys, the shrunken prince had to constantly push it up and away from his eyes, bothered by the fact that it was too big on him.

“Y-you won‘t win this battle monster!” Said Roman he figured he had to do what Remus said if he didn‘t want to be punished as Dee said, he allowed his son to do it after all.

The kid giggled at the prince‘s acting “Remus!” A maid screamed from the doorway to get his attention “your food is ready, come for it before it gets cold”

“Coming!” Remus stood up and turned to Roman “stay here, I‘ll be back shortly” he said before running back inside to get his lunch.

The prince was surprised, he couldn‘t believe Remus actually left him alone, he took the helmet off and ran to another entrance to the castle, hoping it would get him close to someone who could help him.

He rarely was on this part of the castle, so he didn‘t remember the place he was going in was a storage room, there were mostly food kept inside, and there was no other way out of it than the door Roman had come in from.

“Ugh, they brought us the wrong kind again” said a worker as he went inside.

Roman hid behind a bag, the end of it was folded and he climbed on the wrinkles it‘s position created as he listened to the conversation “You better go to the town to return them, and make sure they give you the right ones this time, everything has to be perfect for the wedding”

The wedding? Roman thought it would be cancelled by now “fine, but you‘ll go next time Taylin”

“Yes, yes I will, now hurry up, we have to start whit the food soon Joan!”

“I know, I know” Joan lifted one of the bags and left it in the caret “and I‘ll be back shortly” they kept getting bags into the caret, one of them being the one Roman was hiding behind.

The prince did his best to not make a sound as he held the outside of the bag tightly to avoid falling, he knew he had to get help, but he would rather get it for someone he knew more, he had trusted Dee after all, and he barely talked to the people in the castle aside from his father and Thomas.

“And make sure they give you the right thing” Taylin leaned and kissed they couple‘s cheek.
Joan smiled and got up of the caret “I will” they grabbed the reins and started to make their way to town.

Once they arrived, Joan stopped the horses in the middle of the town and started to take the bags to the people in charge of the store, Roman managed to fall out of the caret between all the movement, he started to panic and hid behind one of the caret’s wheels, he looked at all the people, there was no way he could go unnoticed in town.

That’s when he remembered there was someone who knew how to go unnoticed between humans, Patton, and the store Joan had stooped at just happened to be in front of the alley where they first met, he glanced around once more and ran towards it, surprisingly getting there safely, he looked around the boxes, he knew Patton went into the walls, so he started to knock on them and one part got pushed inwards, a door, now he just had to find the borrower.

Roman went inside the tunnel and made sure to close the handmade door before starting to walk, it was dark but it wasn’t very wide so he used his hands to touch the walls and guide him, just hoping he would get somewhere.

A blurry figure could be half seen at the distance, and it was getting closer, the prince backed away fearing for the worst, instead, two arms were hugging him “Don’t ever scare me like that again! You’ve been gone for days” he said breaking the hug.

Roman could now look at him, he was pale and had purple hair, how the hell did he get purple hair? One of his eyes was green and the other one was purple, he was a bit shorter (huh) and clearly not Patton ”Uh… sorry?”

“Sorry? Is that everything you have to say! I thought you were dead Pat!”

“Oh” The prince had forgotten he looked very much exactly the same as the borrower, and he was clearly being confused with him now “This is a misunderstanding, I might look like him, but I’m not Patton”

The borrower raised an eyebrow “What the hell are you talking about?”

Roman took a deep breath “I’m Patton’s friend, we met a week ago and we both have no idea why we are so similar” he said giggling awkwardly “And the thing is, I need help, and seeing as Paton’s not around, do you think you could provide some?”

“Did you hit your head or something?” He said as he rubbed his forehead “I have nor the time or patience for this, let’s get back home and I’ll check if you have any wounds” The borrower grabbed Roman’s hand and pulled him deeper into the tunnel.

Roman followed “I’m telling the truth! I’m not Patton!”

“Whatever you say”

The prince groaned, they stood silent for a while and Roman decided to break the ice “You’re not even going to tell me your name?”

The borrower glanced at him for a second before continuing “You must have really fucked up your head to not remember me, it hurts me padre” he sighed “but if it’ll help, I’m Virgil, and you have been living with me for four years”

“Nice to meet you Virgil”

Virgil stopped “Yeah whatever” he pushed a side of the walls and pushed Roman inside, it was a house, light by a single candle, most of the furniture was handmade and others were just normal objects, but at this size, they could be repropoused as other things.

“Sit over there” Virgil pointed to a thimble close to a table, Roman sat on it, it was at the right height to be used as a stool, Virgil turned to see him with a wet piece of cloth in his hands “Geez what did you do to your hair?”

“What do you mean?”

Virgil used the cloth to rub Roman’s hair “It’s darker, what did you put on it?” He asked rubbing harder.

“Ouch” Roman moved his head away from Virgil “that was way too hard”

The borrower looked at the cloth, there wasn’t any spot on it, it was still clean “It’s not coming off”

“Of course it’s not, my hair it’s like this because I’m not Patton”

Virgil looked between Roman and the cloth “B-but if you’re not Patton” His breath started to accelerate “then where? W-where is him?” Virgil took several steps back until his back met the wall, he slid down to the floor and hugged his knees.

“No, no, no, Virgil” Roman stood up and the kneeled in front of the borrower “look at me and breathe please, I need you to breath”

He looked up at the prince with tears on his eyes and did as he indicated until he calmed down “T-thanks… and I’m sorry, for not believing you”

“It’s okay” Roman stood up and offered his hand to the other.

Virgil took it and the prince pulled him up, unintentionally, they ended millimeters away from each other’s face, but instead of pulling apart immediately, they stood there for a couple of seconds, Virgil looked away blushing “W-well… since you’re not Patton, what’s your name?” He asked.

Roman didn’t look away, he kept starring at the borrower “Right, uh, this is going to sound weir but” he took a deep breath “I’m prince Roman”

The borrower looked back at the prince once he had back away a few steps, and then he started laughing “Okay, I might have mistaken you before, but I’m pretty sure you fucked up your head badly, because from what I remember, prince Roman is a human!"

“Yes, I am a human, but my father’s advisor shrunk me as a part of his evil plan to take the throne, that’s why I need your help”

Virgil stopped laughing “Are you serious?”

Roman nodded.

“Okay” Virgil took a deep breath “Let’s suppose I believe you, how and why should I help you, your majesty?”

Roman frowned “well, first of all you should take this seriously”

“Of course” he said sarcastically.

“And, I was hoping you could take me back to the castle”

Virgil crossed his arms “Why do you think I know how to get there? And how did you get here in the first place?”

Roman sighed “I got stuck between some bags of food they had to return, and then I fell from the caret”

“Wow, you are really stupid for a prince”

He made some offended princey noises “It doesn’t matter, and, since the day I met Patton, I’ve been looking around the castle and I’ve noticed some borrower entrances, I don’t think anybody uses them anymore, but we could use them to move around”

That’s when something clicked on Virgil’s head “Wait, if you’re a human, how did you meet Patton?”

“Oh, I saw him in an alley, and we kind of just talked after noticing we were like twins”
“And you just let him go? Why?”

Roman shrugged “Because that was the right thing, I asked him if he wanted to go and live with me in the castle and he said no, I just respected his decision”

Virgil blinked surprised “but you’re a human, you capture us and see us as pets or just get rid of us like pests”

Roman smirked “so you believe me?”

“I didn’t say that”

“You did” Roman kept smiling “and it doesn’t matter if you see humans that way, right now I’m your size, it’s not like I can do any of that”

The borrower looked away “but how do I know you won’t do it if I help you and you grow back to normal?”

“Come on, don’t you trust me?” Virgil raised an eyebrow “Okay dumb question, just help me please, if I don’t get married in a week the kingdom will be ruined, there will be people living in the streets and you could get discovered more easily” said Roman “If you don’t help me, we both are going o be in serious trouble”

Virgil sighed “Fine, fine, we’ll get out tomorrow I have to go get some stuff” he said grabbing his bag “just, don’t touch anything, don’t turn the candle off and don’t get out, I’ll be back shortly” is not like he had something better to do than to help a regal.

Chapter Text

Thomas walked through the halls, he knew both Dee's and his son's room were in this area, he found Remus's room first as the door had a sign the kid had made, the door was half opened and he could hear the conversation inside.

”What happened Remus?” Asked Dee.

”I-I...”

Dee sighed ”I won't get mad, I just want to know what happened”

Remus was silent for a moment ”We were playing outside... I went to the kitchen to grab my linch and when I went back he was no longer there” he sniffed ”I searched everywhere for him... I-I didn't do it on purpose I promise”

”Shh, don't worry” he thought for a moment ”But that doesn't explain how he got back to normal, or why he didn't say anything... something smells fishy about this...”

Without noticing, Thomas leaned on the door and it fully opened, revealing himself.

Dee looked at the teacher “Well, well, well, it seems we have a spy. Do you remember what we do to spies Remus?”

“Spies can’t escape and say what they saw!” He answered cheerfully.

“That’s right” he pet his son’s hair “Then catch him”

Thomas started to run away from the room, he stopped when he felt the ten-year old hugging his legs, he tried to keep walking but having someone hanging from his legs didn’t make it easy “Good job” Dee walked from behind and grabbed Thomas’s shoulder “Now, let’s make this the easy way and no one’s going to get hurt”

Thomas ended being dragged to Dee’s workshop “Tell me Thomas, where did you find Roman?”

“I found him in the way to the neighbor kingd-“

“No” Dee grabbed a bottle from a table “Don’t tell me the story you made up for the king, tell me the truth”

“It is the truth...”

Dee hummed “really?” He walked to the teacher “Do you know what we do to liars?” He pulled Thomas’s hair and grabbed the dropper of the bottle, he managed to stuck it in his mouth and left two drops for him to swallow.

Thomas got apart once Dee stopped grabbing him “What was that?”

“Just a little something to make sure you don’t lie to me again”

Thomas noticed he was eye level with Dee, even if he had always been a couple of inches taller, and he became taller until he was eye level with Dee’s neck “Y-You...”

“Yes, I shrunk you” the adviser used one of his fingers to lift Thomas’s chin “Now tell me the truth, or else” he dangled the bottle in front of the shorter man.

The interrogation didn’t end well, Dee got desperate after the third time Thomas’s refused to tell the truth and emptied the whole bottle on his mouth, and now he was sitting at the corner of a cage, Dee on one side waiting for him to talk, and Remus in the other playing on the table next to the cage.

“You know what, if you don’t want to talk, I’ll find what’s happening by myself, come on Remus, lets live our prisoner alone to think” Dee walked to the door with his son following behind him.

The kid waved to Thomas “bye, bye” he said before closing the door, Thomas knew he couldn’t trust Dee.

Patton and Logan walked with his hands intertwined, Patton often forgot about the situation he was in and let his feelings take over, he became closer to Logan in the last couple of days and he started to fall in love with the prince.

“Ro” said Logan.

Patton didn’t react until a few seconds later, he hummed in response.

Logan stopped walking and stood in front of who he thought was Roman “We’ve known each other for so long, but these last days have been different, I know you’re the same as always, but something feels different. It’s not remotely possible, but I feel like I met a totally different and new side of you”

The grown borrower giggled nervously “Is that bad?”

“No! On the contrary, I like this part of you” Logan let go of the other’s hands and reached into the inner pocket of his vest “I know we’ve been told all our lives that this moment was going to come, but I’m doing it because I truly love you, not because everyone it’s waiting for it, so tell me” he said kneeling in front of Patton and extending to him what he had on his hand, a ring “Roman, would you give me the honor of being your husband?”

Patton was speechless, Thomas told him this was going to happen, but he was kind of hoping Roman had appeared by that time, neither the less, he knew what he had to do, both his head and his heart were telling him to say “Yes, Logan of course I will marry you”

The prince stood up and kissed Patton, this was like their first kiss, passionate but sweet and both men were fully into it, Logan broke the kiss and grabbed Patton’s hand, putting the ring on his finger “It looks perfect on you”

He looked at the ring blushing, for the first time in days, he wasn’t thinking about Roman, he didn’t have to fake, he was showing what he truly felt, and he was trusting Logan his feelings, even if his were for someone else.

Virgil opened one of the secret doors of the tunnels “It’s all clear, let’s go”

“Wait” Roman took his arm before he could get out “Isn’t a way to get to the castle trough the walls?”

The borrower closed the door slightly “If there was one, we wouldn’t be going this way”
“But aren’t borrowers supposed to be a secret and that stuff..?”

Virgil closed the door completely “What’s the matter princey? Are you scared?”

Roman let out a dry laugh and crossed his arm “Me? Scared? Of course not! I just don’t want you to get caught”

The borrower smirked and sat on the floor, leaning on the opposite wall from where the door was “Come here” he said patting the floor next to him.

The prince sat “I’ve done this a million times, it’s totally safe if you’re with an expert”

“I know, it’s just...” Roman sighed “I’m not used to this size, I know I’m going to paralyse when I see someone from the floor, this is all new and weird for me”

Virgil huffed “and you don’t think I’m scared?”

The shrunken human looked at him “weren’t you an expert?”

“I am, but you never know what’s going to happen, or do you think Patton planned his encounter with you?”

“No... I know he didn’t, he was quite scared to say the least”

Virgil smiled “That’s the life of a borrower, you go out to borrow what you need to survive and hope no one notices, I used to have very strong anxiety attacks everyday Patton helped me with them when I met him, I still have them, but they’re less frequent and way more manageable”

Roman smiled at his friend “I guess is not only the size thing, all my life, everyone puts me before them, they all have really big expectations and hopes on me, what would they say if someone managed to capture us, or me at the very least, I didn’t make the right choice and got myself shrunk, what kind of leader could I be when I’m not bigger than an average hand?”

“Roman” the borrower held his hand “I must admit that I don’t know a lot about royalty, but from what I’ve seen this time we’ve been together, I can tell you’re making your best to fix your mistake, you’re thinking on your kingdom, on the consequences staying like this would have on it, sure, everyone expects the king doesn’t make mistakes in the first place, but knowing how to fix them , from my point of view, it’s a better quality for a ruler”

The prince blushed slightly at the contact “Thank you Virgil”

Virgil winked at him “Whenever you want, can we continue now? At this rate, we can get to the castle tomorrow”

Roman nodded “Let’s go then” they both stood up, his hands never stopped touching each other as they ran out of the walls, Roman was glad he could find help from someone that cared, someone that he could trust.

Chapter Text

Roman was right, there were borrower tunnels in the castle, and for some reason, Virgil knew how to go through them.

”Where do you need to go?” He asked.

”To the lower levels, I hope we can find Thomas's room, he'll help me” Thomas was the best option to go seek for help, his father would freak out as well as Logan, and he wasn't that close to any other person in the castle.

”There we go then” Virgil started to walk around, surprisingly knowing exactly where to go.
Roman raised an eyebrow as he followed ”how do you know this tunnels so well”

”I'm a borrower, we know how this works”

”Yes but, I'm a prince and that doesn't mean I know how to walk around every castle in the world” said Roman.

”It's not the same”

The prince stopped and crossed his arms ”you know I'm not going to leave it alone until you explain”

Virgil sighed and turned around ”I used to live here when I was little, there, happy?” He continued his way.

”Wait what?” Roman continued walking as well ”Why did I never see you?”

”That's the whole point princey, we're not supposed to be seen”

Roman groaned ”right, the whole secret thing, why is that tho?”

They came across a handmade stair and Virgil started to climb down ”I told you, humans see us as either pets or pests, so either we would die, or held captive if we were discovered”

Roman shivered as he remembered the cage ”yeah being trapped it's not nice at all” he started to climb down as well.

”See? You have experienced it, you know how it feels, just thinking about it gives me chills”

”Well, I won't keep you trapped and-” before he could finish, his foot slipped and he fell to where Virgil was.

The borrower reacted quickly and awkwardly caught the prince, but at least he wasn't hurt, he sighed relieved and raised his sight, they were, for the millionth time since they started their journey, millimeters away from each other.

Roman smirked while blushing ”I don't think you're a pest either, I would be so lucky to have you living in the castle” Roman finished his sentence.

Virgil was already red, but the prince's words made him go full tomato ”Y-you wouldn't say the same if you were normal size...” he said looking away.

”Virgil...” he grabbed his chin and made him look at his eyes ”Of course not, I mean what I said, I wouldn't be happy knowing I wont get to see you anymore”

”W-what are you talking about?” Asked Virgil as he backed away ”You planned on see Patton at the alley, I figured I could go and see you too”

”Oh...” that was not what Roman meant, that was not what he wanted, he only spent a few minutes with Patton and considered him his friend, but Virgil, they had spent the last three days together, seeing him once a week after this ended was not enough ”of course, I had forgot about that”

The borrower looked straight at the other's eyes, he was hoping Roman kept insisting about staying in the castle ”we have to continue then” he said turning around and walking again.

Roman followed, there was an awkward silence for a couple of minutes, but then Virgil broke it.

”Could you... tell me about this prince Logan you're going to marry?”

The prince was confused, why would Virgil ask about Logan? ”Sure, uhh... we've been friends since we were kids, we took music lessons together, and we knew some years later that we were expected to get married someday”

”And, do you love him?” Asked the borrower as he lowered his head and played with his long sleeves.

”Well... I do, we've been together since all these years, being with him forever would be ideal, both for me and the kingdom”

Virgil kept quiet for a moment ”I see” he stopped in front of another entrance ”this is the only wat into the servitude rooms, it was an empty space last time I was here, let's hope we find your friend before someone finds us” he said, took a deep breath and opened the door ”after you, your highness”

Roman looked at Virgil's expression, he looked and sounded disappointed ”Thanks” he got out of the tunnel, the borrower following from behind.

Virgil closed the door and cleaned the tears that started to accumulate on his eyes hoping the prince won't notice and turned around, they were under something, by it's shape Virgil could tell that it was a bed “it seems it’s a room now”

The prince nodded and started to walk out from under the bed “I don’t think it’s Thomas’s tho” something about the room felt familiar, and he didn’t like it.

Virgil ran to Roman and blocked his way with his arm before he could get out “Stay here and I’ll check around” he walked next to the wall “All clear, you can come out” he said as he saw there was nobody on the rom.

Roman rolled his eyes and walked to where Virgil was “I could have done it my-“ he stopped talking when he was able to see the rest of the room “we have to get out of here”

“What? Why?”

“This is Re-“ the door busted open before Roman could finish.

“And the powerful sorcerer Remus saved the day once more!” The kid giggled and spun around where the door was “And now he’s off to-“ he stopped when he spotted something on the floor, the two tiny people “Roman! You’re back!” He said as he started to run towards them.

Virgil froze, he had never been seen by a human, and this was a kid, he knew kids were more dangerous.

Roman reacted and grabbed the borrower’s arm, dragging him back to under the bed, as Remus’s hand got closer to them, he pulled Virgil closer to himself and pushed him towards the entrance, just in time for the kid to grab him on a fist.

Virgil stopped and turned to see the prince “Roman!” He said running back to him.

“No, run! Go away!” Shouted Roman as Remus took him out from under the bed.

The borrower stopped, he neither went for Roman or returned to the walls, he just stood there.

“Dad is going to be so happy I found you!” Remus stood up and ran out of his room.

Once he was alone again, Virgil went into the walls slamming the door behind him, he leaned on it and slid to the floor trying to stead his breathing, he had to think of something to do quick.

Chapter Text

Patton couldn't stop looking at his ring, he had seen some thousands of times, but never thought he'll be able to use one, much less one as fancy as this.

Since the proposal, Patton started to act a little more like himself while he was around Logan, his heart kept speaking louder than his head and he fell in love with the prince more every day.

He lowered his hand as he thought about Roman, he had been on his head less and less, but he still remembered he was the one Logan loved.

The borrower was also worried about Thomas, he hadn't appeared since the day he arrived here, Patton managed to keep going with the lie by himself, but he was still worried.

Someone knocked in the door “Come in” the door was opened and a maid peeked her head into the room “Prince Roman, your presence is required in the throne room”

“I’ll be there in a moment, thank you” The maid got out of the room and closed the door behind her, Patton took a deep breath as he prepared to get into his role again, he stood up and got out of the room.

He walked to the throne room and got inside closing the door behind him, in there, King Emile and Remy, Dee and Logan could be seen.

“Oh look, here he is” Dee said gesturing to Patton “The impostor”

The borrower got speechless, there was no way for him to know the truth right? “What?” He asked.

Emile sighed “Darling, Dee is saying that you’re not the real Roman”

“Which of course” interrupted Logan “is not remotely possible”

Dee smirked “your highness” he said turning to Emile “I suppose you’re aware of my interest in magic”

“I am” The king rubbed his forehead “you asked for supplies and a place to practice a few years ago”

“Well, there are a lot of types of magic, one of which can make a person look and sound like another one, and it can be easily undone by this” he reached into his cape and got a bottle full of a white sparkly liquid “this potion can erase the effects of any kind of curse or spell on someone if they drink it”

Logan groaned “this is ridiculous”

The advisor walked to Patton “Prince Roman, or whatever your name is, would you mind to prove your honesty to us?”

“There’s nothing to prove here!” Logan walked to his fiancé’s side and took his arm “you don’t have to do this”

“He’s right, you don’t have to do it, but I’ll tell you what, is you drink it and nothing happens, you can fire me, I myself will walk out of the castle and you’ll never see me again, you don’t have nothing to fear if there’s nothing to hide”

The prince rolled his eyes “fine, if that is going to end this madness”

Patton gulped looking at the potion, he knew that everything would be ruined if he drank it, he would shrink back to his normal size and who knows what are they going to do to him afterwards.

King Emile will be devastated knowing his son’s still missing, king Remy will be so mad that he’ll cancel the wedding and the alliance definitely, Dee will be so proud he was right that he’ll have enough courage to proceed with whatever evil plan he had, and Logan... god Logan will hate him, they’ve been through a lot in the last days and he kept lying to him, even if his love was real.

He took a deep breath and grabbed the bottle, glancing one last time at everyone in the room, stopping when he got to Logan, he looked at his ring for a moment before returning his sight to him and muttering “I’m sorry” before drinking the potion.

Logan’s expression changed from an annoyed one to a worried one, he tried to stop Patton but it was too late, he was only able to grab the bottle before the other one let go of it.

A gasp was made by most of the people in the room as Patton shrank, he had his eyes closed, but he could feel the wig and his ring weren’t shrinking with him, when he opened his eyes, he was under the wig and everything was dark, it’s cover was lifted and he could see Dee’s gigantic face in front of him.

“Wow, this is not what I was expecting” he reached and grabbed Patton from the back of his shirt “But it works” he whispered to the borrower “Gentlemen, it seems I’ve made a mistake, this was not costume magic, but a size changing one” he lifted Patton close to his face “this right here, is a borrower, an almost unknown magical creature” Dee huffed trying to hold back a laugh “I wouldn’t say magical actually, the only thing that makes their existence so unbelievable, is their minuscule size, as why does he look like the prince, no idea, but he clearly did all of this to take the throne” he got closer to the king as he spoke “your highness” he handed Patton to Emile.

“N-No! That wasn’t why I did it” he looked up at the king “I-I swear I was just trying to help Roman! Protect the prince from him!” Patton turned to Dee and pointed at them.

“For the love of god!” King Remy walked to Emile “It doesn’t matter what he was trying to do, we’ve been fooled! You were just playing with us and you know what? We are out of this alliance! And this is over!” He screamed walking away.

”Remy wait” Emile stood up with the borrower still on his hand and grabbed Remy's arm with the other one ”I had no idea I promise, Roman ran away and then he used it to take his place and I-”

The king got his arm out of Emile's grasp ”And you weren't going to tell us that either?! What else are you hiding from us?!” He took a deep breath before continuing ”I just can't trust you anymore Emile” he turned and continued his way to the door ”Go get your stuff hun, we're going back home” he said to Logan before walking out.

The prince glanced at Patton briefly, he picked up his ring and followed his father.

Emile breathed sadly as he managed to hold back his tears ”Dee, take this liar to the guards, make sure they find a cage for it and leave it in the dungeon” he said handing Patton back to his advisor.

Dee smirked and took the borrower ”With pleasure” he walked out of the room and to the dungeon ”I don't know how you discovered me, but staying in a cage will keep you out of the way” he whispered to Patton, they got to the dungeon and Dee gave him to one of the guards ”Keep him locked, direct orders from the king” the guard nodded and walked away with the borrower in hand.

King Remy closed the door of the carriage ”Can you believe it? You almost married that?”

Logan couldn't stop looking at the ring he had given to the borrower, everything was connecting in his head, he knew Roman acted different than usual, and he was being honest when he proposed, he liked that attitude ”Unbelievable father” he answered.

The carriage started to move, and Logan felt like he left behind part of his heart.

Chapter Text

Roman shook the bars of the cage, as if that would suddenly free them “I can’t believe I was so stupid to get captured again” he said, sitting next to Thomas “and I’m sorry you’re stuck like this too”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad you’re okay... I hope Patton is too though”

“Patton?” Asked Roman confused.

Thomas sighed “I made a growth potion for Patton and asked him to take your place while I found out what was really happening, but since Dee knows you’re here and not up in the castle... I don’t think he’s going to be able to keep the lie anymore”

“That explains why everyone was so worried about the wedding, and why Virgil hadn’t heard of Paton for days” said Roman

”Virgil?” Asked Thomas looking at the prince ”Who's that?”

Roman looked at the distance ”he's another borrower I met in town, he lives with Patton and got me confused with him when we met, he was so stubborn that I had to explain what happened several times, he helped me once he half believed me”

Thomas smirked as he listened how Roman talked about the borrower “It seem you made a new friend”

“Maybe more than a friend...” thought Roman, he was about to say it but there was something stopping him.

The humans turned their sight to the boarder of the table when a small clanking noise could be heard, there was a fishing hook stuck on the wood, some seconds passed and they could see someone climbing to the top.

“Virgil!” Roman stood up and ran to the door of cage “I’m so happy to see you!”

Virgil finished climbing and took his hook “seems the prince became the damsel in distress” he smirked and walked to the door.

“How did you find us?”

The borrower grabbed his hook and stuck it in the lock “I had to follow the kid” he turned to see Roman “I just couldn’t let anything happen to you”

They looked at each other’s eyes for a while before the prince turned to the lock “are you sure you know how to do it?”

“No” Virgil sighed and started to move the hook around “But I can try and hope it will work”
The borrower kept moving the end of the hook inside of the lock, a small crack could be heard and the lock opened, Virgil smiled and took it off before opening the door.

As soon as he was free, Roman threw himself to Virgil’s arms “Thank you, thank you! I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t appeared”

Virgil blushed slightly and hugged back “You would have figured something out eventually”
“I guess” Roman broke the hug “but it’s better with you here” he would have been unhappy if he never saw Virgil again.

The borrower blushed even more and looked aside “Well, what’s the plan now?”

“We have to get to Roman’s room” said Thomas, getting out of the cage and standing next to them “the growth potion I made must still be there, we’ll use it to grow back to normal and stop Dee before he can try something”

“Can you take us here Virge?” Asked Roman, Virgil nodded in response, he took his hook out of the lock and stuck it near the edge.

“I’ll go down first, just slide down the rope, I can catch you in case you fall” he said and then slid down to the floor, followed by Roman and finally Thomas, the three of them went back into the walls and headed to Roman’s room afterwards.

Patton had finally stopped crying as he sang the last part of Logan’s song to himself, he hugged his knees tighter, everything was over now, he was back to being a borrower, not getting out of the dungeon any time soon, and definitely not going back with Logan.

He kept wondering how much the prince hated him now, and that was the only thing he could think about, even if he knew everything else was wrong too, he had failed Thomas, he had failed Roman, he did everything wrong and now he had to pay for his mistakes.

A guard walked to the one that was protecting his cage “The king wants to see the prisoner”

“I’m sorry but without direct orders from him or his advisor I’m afraid I can’t-“

“The king told me personally, he believes jail is not enough punishment for it and wants to take care of that as soon as possible” the guard interrupted loudly, speaking securely and with authority, making the other guard afraid.

He nodded “understood, you can take it” he moved aside for the other one to grab the cage.
“Very well” he said before turning and walking away.

Patton sunk deeper in the corner, was king Emile that mad at him? What was a worse punishment than the eternity locked away? Was he going to?..

His thoughts were interrupted when the door of the cage was opened, the guard’s metal gloved hand getting closer, the borrower’s breath got accelerated as he tried to back away, he was grab in a surprisingly gentle grip and was brought out of the cage, the guard rose him closer to his face.

“L-Let me go!” Patton was at the boarder of crying again as he struggled in the human’s grip.

“Shh, hey it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you” the guard took of his helmet, revealing a familiar face, Logan “see, it’s just me”

Patton stared at his eyes, those same eyes that made him crazy “L-Logan? What are you doing here?”

The prince smiled “I‘m helping you to get out of here”

“But why?... I-I lied to you...”

“Maybe” Logan used one of the fingers of his free hand to dry one of the tears that managed to get out of the borrower’s eyes “But you had a good reason, you don’t deserve to be trapped here”

Patton smiled and leaned into the touch “so you’re not mad?”

“Not at all”’ Logan returned the smile “and I need your help”

“M-My help? How can I be any help?” Asked Patton confused.

“I have reasons to suspect Dee is planning something, and I can tell you too, we have to work together if we want to stop him” said Logan.

Patton nodded “Thomas said he had something to do with Roman’s disappearance, and then he disappeared too...”

“The we’ll have to find them” Logan cupped Patton closer to his chest, he looked around making sure there was no one else before he started to walk out of the dungeons.

Patton leaned on the prince’s chest, hearing his heartbeat, he looked up at him while he walked “My name’s Patton by the way”

Logan smiled down to him “It’s nice to officially meet you Patton”

The borrower smiled and cuddled on his loved one hand’s, no longer unhappy knowing Logan didn’t hate him.

Dee knocked in the throne’s room door, going inside when he was allowed too “good evening your majesty, I hope you’re feeling better after everything that happened in the morning”

Emile wiped the few tears that remained on his yes “Yes I’m just... worried for my son, and the kingdom... without Remy... without Remy’s alliance, we don’t have a way to end the kingdom’s problems”

“I’m sorry to contradict you, but I might know a way to get rid of our problems”

The king looked at his advisor confused “And what would that be?”

Dee smirked and walked around the room “since my son was born, I had to find a way to maintain him, I managed to collect a quite big amount of gold, enough to invest it and help with the economic issues of the whole kingdom”

“And I suppose you’d want something in exchange for it?”

The advisor reached into the inner pocket of his cape “The only thing I want in order to help you” he said turning to see the king where he was sitting and kneeling in front of him, extending a ring towards him “it’s for you to marry me”

Emile was speechless, he had not expected that at all, there was only one person he wanted to marry and it definitely wasn’t Dee, but if this will help his kingdom... “I will”

Dee smiled widely, his plan was finally moving forward, he grabbed the king’s hand and put him the ring.

Emile just looked as he did it, he was going to end the economic problems, without mattering if he was unhappy.

Chapter Text

"I think it's here" Virgil opened the door in the walls and held it for the humans to go into the room.

Roman got out from under his desk and looked around "Yes, this is my room"

"The potion should be on the desk's drawer, but how are we going to get there?" Asked Thomas, looking up at the top of the desk.

"The same way got down before" the borrower reached into his bag and got his hook out "stand back" was all the warning he gave to the others before he threw his hook to the top, failing a couple of times before it got stuck "All ready"

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Asked Roman " mean, going down is one thing, but climbing all the way up... I don't know if I can do it"

Virgil gave the prince a warm smile and grabbed his shoulders "Listen, you escaped a kid, somehow managed to get to me in the town, came back to the castle and escaped again, at this size"

"But it was you doing it for me most of the time..."

"And you know what? I didn't have to, you convinced me to help you, and let me tell you, it's very difficult for me to trust someone" Virgil's smile went wider "And I'm sure you can do it Roman, your kingdom needs you"

Roman took a deep breath "Okay, let's do it" he walked to the rope and took it, it was right next to one of the desk's legs, so he used it to help him while he climbed, one hand after the other, one foot after the other, Roman kept repeating those words on his head as he followed them, and when he least expected it, he was already at the top.

Thomas and Virgil followed him, the borrower took his hook and used it to open the drawer enough for him to get inside, he pushed it to open it even more once he was inside "I'll get it out but you have to pull it to the table"

Virgil pulled the bottle until he could pass the top to the humans or them to pull it, once the bottle was in the table, Virgil got out of the drawer "Patton's cup was in there too" he handed it to Thomas.

"Thanks" he walked to the bottle and got the cork of, some of the potion spilled on the table, but Thomas was able to fill the cup with it "I'll go first okay?"

Roman nodded, the teacher got closer to the edge and drank the potion, he left the cup in the desk and jumped down once he was big enough.

The prince turned to Virgil "I guess this is it..."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not going to force you to stay once I'm human sized again, I know what you think about us and if you don't want to be here, I understand"

"No" said Virgil firmly "First of all, I need your help to find Patton, second of all, I might hate humans, but you're my friend now no matter what, and last but not least, we came here together, and we're going to finish it together"

Roman smiled "Whatever you say storm cloud, but, I want to give you something before I grow back" he took his sash off and handed it to Virgil "a little goodbye present"

Virgil took it and held it tight "you don't have to"

"But I want Virgil, is one of my ways to thank you"

The borrower smiled "then take this" he took his hoodie off and put it around Roman's shoulders.

"But this is your comfort item" he said looking at the hoodie

"Well" Virgil said putting the sash on "I might have a new one now"

Roman smiled and put the hoodie on properly before he turned to Thomas, who was back to normal by now and handing him the cup full of potion "You're ready?"

The prince nodded and took the cup, sending one last smile at Virgil before drinking it, he jumped to the floor, being the size of a child when he landed, his growing continued until he was back to normal.

He turned to see the borrower, he had forgotten how small they looked, Roman kneeled in front of the desk and extended his finger to Virgil "It's still me"

Virgil backed away as an instinct, he had never been this close to a human before, he grabbed the sash tightly and took a deep breath before stepping forward and resting his hand on top of Roman's "It's still you"

Roman smiled "Now we need to find Dee" said Thomas.

"Could you pick me up?" Asked Virgil, getting a nod from the prince before being cupped on his hands "Let's go then" and they left the room.

Emile stood still while his suit was given the final details, he had to admit it was a really pretty suit, especially since the tailors made it in such a short time “You are so handsome" his fiancé said walking to him.

"Thanks..." answered Emile.

"Oh, I was talking to myself” said Dee as he looked at himself in the mirror, he turned to see the king and grabbed his hand “but you look really pretty too love” he kissed his hand.

Emile got his hand out of Dee’s grip almost immediately after he felt the kiss “Don’t forget Dee, this is a business matter, not a romantic one”

Dee smirked “who says it can’t be both?”

“Daddy! Daddy!” Remus entered running to the room, wearing his recently made formal outfit “How do I look?”

Dee crouched down to be at his son’s eye level “You look like a true prince darling” he ruffled the kid’s hair “Let’s leave your future father alone for him to finish getting ready alright?”

Remus smiled and took the adult’s hand, who guided him out of the room.

Emile followed them with his sight until the door closed with them outside, he looked at his reflection once more, reminding himself over and over that all of this was for his people.

Logan looked around before continuing walking, he had to make sure nobody saw them “we’re close to Roman’s room now, we’ll figure out what to do once we’re safe there”

Patton nodded, the prince could feel the small movement on his chest, he turned to the hallway where Roman’s room was, the door was on sight now, but the human stopped once he saw someone getting out of it, Thomas, Roman’s teacher, who was soon followed by prince Roman himself

Both princes made eye contact, neither of them aware of the borrower on the other’s hands, they walked to each other slowly, with everything that had happened in the last few days, their feelings were not clear at all.

Logan had notice the difference on Roman’s behavior, of course, now he know it was because it was Patton all along, he had never felt the way he did with the borrower when he was with Roman.

Roman had truly enjoyed Virgil’s company in the last days, he had always been friends with Logan and they were very close, but with Virgil, it was different, they had had instant chemistry, they both trusted most of their lives to each other, he could really be his true self, something that never happened when he had to act polite and nice with Logan.

They both stopped right in front of each other “Hi” said Roman.

“Greetings” said Logan “I thought you ran away”

“I didn’t, that was just something Dee made up as part of his evil plan”

Logan smiled slightly “I figured it was something like that” he looked down at his hands “I think there’s someone who wants to see you” he lowered them, revealing Patton.

“Ro!” The borrower smiled widely when he saw his friend “I’m so happy you’re alright!”

Roman smiled back “Thanks for covering me Pat, and I have someone who wants to see you” he lowered his hands to reveal Virgil.

“Patton!” Roman gave Virgil to Logan, who hugged his roommate tightly “I was so worried about you”

Patton hugged back “I’m sorry kiddo! I left without saying anything”

“It’s okay, we’re back together now” Virgil broke the hug and smiled at Patton.

“Even if I hate to end such adorable moment” said Thomas, walking to the others “we have to find and stop Dee before it’s too late, do you have any idea of what is he planning to do?”

“No, I’ve been trying to figure it out, the only possible outcome is for him to try and take the throne, but I am unsure on how he’s planning to do it”

“Of course!” Roman said all of sudden “I forgot about it, he said something about marring my father, convincing him with his gold and then take over the throne”

“You forgot he said that?!” Asked Virgil.

“Well I’m sorry, this has been a really though week!”

“It doesn’t matter” said Thomas “we have a wedding to stop, and hope Dee gets his karma”

Chapter Text

The music started to play, Emile took a deep breath and forced his tears to stay in as the doors of the castle opened, the garden was decorated for the wedding, yellow and pink flowers all over the place, he started to walk down the aisle and towards his future husband.

The most important people for the kingdom were there, they all stood up as the wedding started, Emile recognised every single face, even if there was one person missing.

The king remembered what he had spent with his loved one as he slowly continued walking.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

“Aren’t they adorable Rem? They’re going to be the perfect couple when they grow up” Emile said as they looked at their sons hugged at the front seats of the chapel.

”They are indeed” Remy petted the other king’s back ”I’m so sorry about the queen, I know how it feels like”

Emile shook his head ”It’s not me who I’m worried about, Roman was very close to her, it’s going to be a difficult recovery”

”But you need to think about you too” Remy kneeled in front of him and grabbed Emile’s hands ”I know how much you loved her, and I’m not going allow you to put your feeling aside, you need to suffer as much as your son to feel better”

Emile smiled, the tears finally left his eyes ”It hurts… it really hurts Rem…”

”I know” he stood up and hugged Emile close to him ”I know it does…”

Roman looked at them once he heard noise, he stood up and hurried to leave the flowers he took from the garden on top of his mother’s coffin before running to where his father was, hugging him tightly.

The king smiled down at his som and hugged back, Logan stood next to Remy and he pulled him into the group hug, Emile and Roman cried themselves to sleep that night.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

”I see you’ve been better since the last time we came” The kings walked side by side while the princes ran around the garden.

”It’s been hard, but we’re getting through it, you’ve been taking care of us after all” he smiled and unconsciously grabbed the other’s hand.

Remy smiled at the gesture, a little confused about it but he didn’t complain, there was only minutes later when Emile noticed what he was doing and quickly took his hand back “I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…”

“I don’t mind it” Remy said, taking Emile’s hand again and making him blush, he returned the smile and leaned on his shoulder.

“I don’t mind it” Remy said, taking Emile’s hand again and making him blush, he returned the smile and leaned on his shoulder.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

“Discuss important stuff, really?” Asked Remy as Emile dragged him to his room.

“Well, I couldn’t tell our sons we were going to catch up and make out because we’re dating” Emile pushed Remy into his room and closed the door.

The taller king grabbed his boyfriend’s hand “You have a point there hun” and pulled him close, kissing him on the lips.

Emile found himself trapped on a mischievous but sweet kiss, he kissed back and they only got apart to breath before continuing, Remy sat on the bed and Emile sat on his lap, hugging him with his legs around the torso and his arms around the neck, Remy started to give the shorter king small kisses on the neck, making him giggle, they continued like that for a while and cuddled while they talked afterwards.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

“Darling” Emile cosed the door behind him as he saw his wife standing next to the window “What are you doing? You need to rest” he grabbed her hand.

“I’ve already had enough rest Em” she said, but followed her husband as he guided her to the bed “It’s not going to work either way, we both know I don’t have much time”

The king looked at her and they both sat on the bed “Please don’t say that… you are going to get better” he said kissing her hand.

“But it’s true, and there’s nothing we can do about it” she grabbed Emile’s hands as tight as she could “And promise me that you’ll let yourself suffer once I’m gone”

Emile tried his best to not cry “I’m already suffering and you’re still here…”

“I know” The queen grabbed hi cheek and petted it slowly “And one last thing, when I’m gone, I want you go and fight for your love with Remy”

“What?” His wife’s words confused him, he was clearly not expecting that “What are you-?”

“You love him Emile, they way you look at him makes it very clear”

The king looked away ashamed “Am I that obvious?”

The queen smiled “Yes you are, and I know you love me too, but I don’t want you to keep lying to yourself, you and Remy are soulmates, don’t let that go”

Emile sighed “Thanks, having your blessing makes it a lot easier”

“I know it would” she said smirking.

The king smiled and kisses his wife’s cheek “let’s get some sleep”

Little did he knew, that was the last talk he would had with the queen.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

“We are out of this alliance! And this is over!” Remy screamed and started to walk away.

”Remy wait” Emile stood up and grabbed the king’s arm, knowing he wasn’t only finishing the alliance “I had no idea I promise, Roman ran away and then he used it to take his place and I-”

He got his arm out of Emile’s grasp ”And you weren’t going to tell us that either?! What else are you hiding from us?!” He took a deep breath and looked at his ex boyfriend in the eyes before continuing ”I just can’t trust you anymore Emile” he turned and continued his way to the door.

Emile felt his heart shattering, after all this years, he was sure Remy felt the same way he did, he was sure they were meant to be together, he was sure they were soulmates, he fought the tears and ordered Dee to take the borrower away, collapsing on the floor and crying once he was left alone, he didn’t ever thought about going thought another heartbreak, and it hurt as much as the first one.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•

The king was quick to clean the tear that had managed to escape his eyes, he stopped walking and looked at Dee, the priest started with the wedding ceremony, it was short since none of them had votes, so they were already finishing on a matter of minutes.

“Dee Rascal, do you take Emile Picani to be your husband, to love and respect him on the good and bad times, on health and disease, until death pulls you apart?”

“I do” Said Dee confidently as he held Emile’s hands.

The priest turned to see the shorter man “And you Emile Picani, do you take Dee Rascal to be your husband, to love and respect him on the good and bad times, on health and disease, until death pulls you apart?”

“I…” Emile couldn’t get himself to say it, even if it was the right thing, it didn’t felt right “I-“

“Stop the wedding!” A voice screamed and the people turned to see it’s source, whispering and gasping, including Dee and Emile, the king was shocked as he saw the person he least expected to appear on this exact moment.

Chapter Text

“Roman?” Emile asked at the sight of his son.

“That’s impossible” said Dee, putting his arm in front of te king to keep him from moving “the borrower must have escaped, grow himself again and came back to fool us”

“Falsehood” said Logan as he walked outside and stood next to Roman “Patton is right here” he said lifting his hand where the borrower sat.

Emile’s eyes went wide, he pushed Dee’s arm aside and walked to his son, Roman did the same and they were face to face once they reached the middle of the aisle, the king cupped Roman’s face with his hand and rubbed his cheek “Is it really you?”

The prince nodded “It’s me dad”

“My boy” Emile started to tear up while he pulled Roman into a tight hug “I thought I’ll never see you again”

Roman hugged back, aware and careful with the borrower on his hands “I’m here now dad” he said breaking the hug “not because of him” he said glaring at Dee.

“What?” The king asked looking back and forth between his son and the guy he was about to marry.

“Dee used magic to shrink and keep Roman captive” said Thomas as he walked to the royals “He did the same with me and I have no doubt he planned on doing it to you too your highness”

Emile frowned, but before anyone could say anything, Dee started to run away “Guards!” Emile shouted and a bunch of guards started to chase the wizard.

Both princes looked at each other and left the borrowers on Thomas’s hand “You’ll be safe I promise” Roman said to Virgil.

“We’ll be right back” said Logan and they too ran after Dee.

Dee went straight to his workshop, he grabbed a couple of things and stuffed them on a bag “Stupid princes, I don’t know how they managed to get away, but they’re ruining my plans!”

“Thanks, that was our goal” The royal advisor turned around alarmed as he heard prince Roman”s voice ”Now, you can make this easier for everyone and just give up”

“As if” he said dropping one of the bottles he had on the floor, a thick mist came out of the spilled potion, blurring Roman’s vision and making him cough, Dee took the opportunity and ran out of the room, Remus knew where to meet him so that wasn’t a problem, he just had to get out of the castle.

Someone grabbed his arm midway through the hallway, he glanced back, prince Roman, god, was he ever going to stop being a nuisance “Going somewhere Dee?”

“Actually, yes I was” he tried to take his arm out of the prince’s grip, failing and making both of them fall to the floor as well as all his magic potions, even if surprisingly, none of them broke.

Roman wasn’t going to resist for much longer, it couldn’t seem like it, but Dee was really strong, he glanced at one of the potions, recognising the colour of the liquid inside, the shrinking potion, with a bit of struggle, he grabbed the bottle and broke it on the wizard’s head, making Dee push him away as he winced and grabbed his face on pain.

Dee took his gloved hand away from the half of his face he was holding, revealing scales growing into his skin, his left eye had turned yellow and his pupil changed into a reptile like one, confused, Roman looked down at the floor, he grabbed the wrong potion, that explained the unexpected transformation.

The prince was quick to grab the correct potion this time, about to do the same in order to shrink Dee and make him easier to handle, but being stopped by the advisor who grabbed Roman’s wrist tightly on the air.

“You really are a nuisance your majesty” Dee started to push the other’s wrist, making Roman loose his balance and he fell to he floor, Dee managed to get the potion out of the prince’s grip “I may no longer have the chance to be king, but you can still be a nice pet for both Remus and I, and this time, escaping will not be that easy” he said taking the cork off the bottle “say goodbye to your life as a human you little pest”

Roman closed his eyes and covered himself with his arms preparing mentally to shrink again, but it didn’t happen, he opened his eyes to see Logan, standing behind Dee ad holding the potion “Not on my watch Dee” he said before getting the potion out of Dee’s grip and splashing it on him.

Dee hissed at Logan and started to run again, shrinking with every step he took, he was grabbed by the back of his shirt and lifted on the air once he reached the height of a kid “Let go of me!” He screamed, struggling and shrinking even more.

Logan kept Dee on his cupped hands once he was small enough “you fate will be decided by the king, the rest of your life on the dungeon like this should be enough” he could still feel the shrunken mad squirming between his hands, the prince turned to Roman and extended his free hand to him “‘are you alright?”

Roman nodded and took Logan’s hand, he used his help to stand up “thank you for saving me”

Logan gave Roman a small smile “That’s what friends are or right?“

Roman returned the smile "right, now, let’s go back to set the fate of this little bastard”

Thomas explained everything to Emile, the king apologised to Patton and kept asking questions about what had happened, when they were interrupted.

“Stop the we-ding…”

Both guys turned to see the door of the castle, where king Remy stood “I think I arrived late to the party”

“Rem!” Emile ran to him and hugged him tightly “I’m so sorry, I should’t have had hidden Roman’s disappearance from you, we promised to be honest and I broke your trust” The shorter king cupped his loved one’s cheek with one hand “But almost getting married made me realize that you are the one I want to share the rest of my life with”

“And I’m sorry Em, I shouldn’t have reacted like that, you were trying to protect your kingdom, and I understand that, but as soon as I heard you were getting married, I knew that I couldn’t let that happen, because I love you Emile”

“I love you too Remy” he smiled and stood on his tiptoes to reach Remy’s face and kiss him.

Both kings played with each other’s mouths, mixing passion with cuteness an letting some giggles out from time to time.

“Dad?” The kings stopped kissing and looked behind them, their sons where standing there shocked.

Remy giggled at the sight of their faces “I guess it’s not a secret anymore”

“I… definitely wasn’t expecting this” said Logan.

“Oh my god! You two make the cutest couple” Roman said, practically jumping to his father’s arms “I’m so happy for you”

Emile smiled and returned the hug, he broke it when he remembered their situation “What happened with Dee?”

“I think it’s safe to say that issue is solved” Logan handed Dee to the king, who kneeled on Emile’s cupped hands.

“Your highness, I’m so sorry” Dee said “What I did was wrong, please forgive me” he was practically begging his way out of this.

“I’m sorry Dee, but I can’t just let you go without a punishment, however, it seems your current height is enough for now, but I still have to ask you some questions” Emile grabbed Remy’s hand and walked to the castle, they had an interrogation to make.

Thomas walked to the princes “at least Dee’s finally out of the way”

“Yes, having to deal with him was not easy” Roman turned to his teacher “But at least everything is back to normal”

“Almost everything” Logan turned to the borrowers that were still on Thomas’s hands.

Neither Roman nor Logan wanted to talk about their current situation, they both fell in love with a borrower, both of them realized their feelings for each other weren’t real, but something they thought they felt, nevertheless, it was uncomfortable to say the least.

”You can stay in the castle if you want, Virgil and I found borrower tunnels, so you won’t have to live feeling like pets” said Roman.

”Or, if you rather, we can take you back to town, respect the original plan Patton had with Roman and we can meet every once in a while”

Both borrowers glanced at each other, experiencing the same problem the humans had, Patton knew Logan didn’t hate him because of what he did, but that didn’t mean the prince loved him back, Virgil didn’t want to get on the way, he knew how important it was for the kingdom to Roman and Logan could get married, and they both wondered, how could a relationship between them work?

“I think going back to town would be the best, our home’s there after all” said Patton and Virgil nodded in agreement.

“Of course” said Roman, a bit disappointed none of them wanted to stay “Then let’s get you back to town!”

Logan grabbed Patton and Roman did the same with Virgil, they walked to where the carriages were and got into one of them, heading to town, none of them said a word during the trip.

Chapter Text

It hadn’t even been a week since the borrowers went back home, just a couple of days since Logan said goodbye to Patton. What was he supposed to do? Ask him to stay? Virgil was so important to him, and he knew Patton wouldn’t leave his family like that.

Logan stopped playing with Patton’s ring as someone knocked on the door, “come in.”

“I thought you didn’t want to see me,” Roman spoke from the other side.

Logan sighed and went to open the door himself. “You’re already here Roman, and we both know I’m not going to send you back if you came to see me.”

Roman looked up at Logan, “that’s why I didn’t let you know I was coming.” He smiled proudly but dropped it because of Logan’s reaction, “sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood.”

Logan hummed and sat on his bed, “do you by any chance know something about the borrowers?”

“I don’t…” Roman sat next to him. “It’s not like I can get into their house like this, and I think they’re hesitant about coming out.”

Logan nodded, “that would make sense. They were already discovered and are not going to take that risk a second time.”

Roman sighed and laid down. “I knoooow, but I just wish we could go talk to them. None of us knew what to say when we left them! And I’m regretting it now…”

Logan looked back at him. They haven’t talked about anything that happened at all, they fell in love with someone else…were they in love? Or did they feel like it because that’s how they were told to feel? “You’re still wearing Virgil’s hoodie.

Roman looked down at his clothes and shrugged, “well, you’re still wearing both wedding rings.

Logan looked down at his finger, “it may sound ridiculous, but it makes me feel closer to Patton.”

“I get it.” Roman sat up and took Logan’s finger between his own, “isn’t it crazy? You were supposed to give me this ring. We were actually going to get married.”

“We were,” Logan looked Roman in the eye. “That weight is not over our shoulders anymore with our parents’ wedding, we don’t have to do it if we do not desire to.”

Roman nodded, “plus we’re going to be brothers. That is more than a good reason to reject you.”

“Is that the only reason?” Logan took his finger back from Roman’s grasp, “are you able to look me in the eye and tell me you’re not in love with Virgil?”

Roman blushed and looked away. “That… doesn’t hurt you or anything, does it?”

Logan looked away as well and adjusted his glasses, “I don’t think it does. We were always expected to fall in love with each other, so we did. Ever since Patton replaced you, I keep wondering if we actually felt anything for each other.”

“That makes two of us.” Roman looked back at him, “I’m not saying you’re not great or anything, ruling by your side would have been amazing! But we’ve been living a lie Lo. I fell in love with the idea of our meant to be romance, our fairytale perfect life or whatever. I never thought of getting out there and actually trying to experience love because I thought I had it with you.”

Logan nodded, “I understand, it was a really poor arrangement on our parents side. I will never understand why they kept their love a secret, especially with both our mothers out of the way… apologies if that sounded cold.”

Roman shook his head in reassurance, “I understand what you meant.” He placed his hand on Logan’s shoulder, “but I suppose it’s easier to blame them without knowing much about their relationship. Dad was very hurt when mom died, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for Remy when your mom left.”

“It wasn’t,” Logan looked back at Roman, “for any of us. I felt like I was exaggerating. My mother is still here, she still writes me letters and I still see her. I couldn’t bring myself to talk with you about how hurt I was.”

“Loving someone after all that felt impossible.” Roman smiled softly, “at least we found out what was going on before our wedding.”

Logan smiled back, “who knew all it took was an evil plan to take over the throne.”

Roman chuckled, “we would have never guessed it.”

“Well, now that we’ve opened up, what brings you to my castle prince Roman?”

“Oh yeah that.” Roman stood up, “I want to go and tell Virgil how I feel.”

Logan blinked, “you want to what?”

“Listen I found someone I’m willing to give anything up for, I’m not going to lose him.” Roman nodded determinedly, “but, I need someone to take me there and I figured you would like to see Patton again too.”

Logan stood up, “what is exactly that you want to do? Can’t you go there by yourself.”

“Not if I shrink down.”

“Roman, let’s say we do this and Virgil corresponds with your feelings. What then?” Logan grabbed Roman’s shoulders as if trying to ground him.

“Then I stay with him.” Roman pushed Logan’s hands away, “I already thought about it. Being a borrower for a week wasn’t that bad, I wouldn’t mind living the rest of my life like that.”

Logan stayed silent. Roman really looked sure about all this… would Patton and Virgil accept him in their home? And what kind of deal could he offer to Patton for them to stay together?

Roman sighed. “Thomas will take me if you don’t want to do it, but I wanted to give you the chance to talk with Patton.”

“No, I’ll do it. Do you have a way of growing back if something doesn’t go as planned?”

Roman took two bottles out of the pocket of Virgil’s hoodie. “Thomas said Janus made Remus get rid of his potions stuff, and he only had ingredients for one of each… he begged me to grab the growing potion too but, I want to show Virgil I’m committed to this. Even if that means staying small forever.”

Logan took one of the bottles. “Do you think Patton would accept to live as a human?”

“Woah, we’re taking a lot of turns here teach.” Roman took the bottle from him.

“It’s not that crazy of an idea. He won’t have to worry about Virgil being alone if you’re with him.”

Roman fell silent as he thought. “I mean, you can propose it to him, whatever happens next is up to Patton.”

Logan smiled, “then we better get going if we want to get to your kingdom before the wedding.”

Chapter Text

Roman actually talked to his father before doing something crazy. He couldn’t disappear like that after everything that had happened.

“I don’t want to miss your wedding, but I want to make sure Virgil is still here. For all I know they could be in the middle of moving already.”

Emile placed his hand on Roman’s shoulder, “you have no idea how happy I am for you Roman. I thought Logan made you this happy but if it’s Virgil, then go for it.”

Roman smiled and held his fathers hand, “even if it means I’ll never see you again?”

Emile sighed, “you were the only one I had for a very long time. We were each other’s family, and a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have let you leave me like this.” He chua bit, “but I kept convincing myself that being with Remy was disrespecting your mother, and disrespecting you.”

“Dad..”

“She would kill me if I didn’t let you go.”

Roman held back the tears. His father never talked about his mom, and Roman was pretty sure this was the first time he mentioned her without crying.

“I won’t let you loose what I’ve been negating myself all this years, I know you’ll be okay.” Emile cupped Roman’s cheek, “is time for you to go and live your life.”

Roman nodded and jumped to his father’s arms, “…I’ll do my best to be here on your wedding. I probably won’t be able to drag Virgil out of the walls, but I know I won’t be afraid of you.”

Emile hugged back and kissed his son’s head, “don’t worry about it darling… you will be there with me.” He broke apart to look at Roman in the eye, “and I’ll always be with you.”

The king reached down to his hand and took of his wedding ring, he had kept it on despite having Remy’s engagement ring. “I know you have your mother’s ring, but you need a pair to marry someone.” He left the ring on Roman’s hand and closed his fingers around it.

Roman looked down at it, “father, I can’t. I know how much it means to you.”

“And it means more to you, besides.” Emile showed Roman his hand, where a second ring decorated his finger, “it wouldn’t be appropriate to keep wearing it. You’ll give it a better use than me.”

Roman took a deep breath remembering his fathers words. He was lucky the magic extended to his clothes, and to the rings on his pocket, the only thing he needed now was a yes from Virgil.

He tried peeking through the opening of Logan’s pocket, when a giant finger pushed him back down. “Hey!”

“We can’t risk anyone seeing you.” Logan looked out the window as the carriage arrived in town.

Roman frowned, being handled was something he wasn’t getting used to any time soon. He played with the rings in his pocket. This had to work, it was going to… right?

There wasn’t any time to think himself out of it, Logan was already walking to the alley! The movement around Roman didn’t help to calm him down at all.

Logan keeled down where he knew the entrance to the walls was. He gently reached into his pocket to get Roman out, “are you ready?”

Roman jumped off Logan’s hand once he was close enough to the ground and gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll let Pat know you’re out here!”

He walked behind some boxes to get to the entrance, taking a deep breath before pushing it open.

Virgil was pacing around as he thought, “are you sure you don’t want to move out? It’s been a week since we came back and we know nothing of them! How do we know we have their protection?”

Patton was preparing some snacks so they could eat before their borrrowing trip, “we’re safe here Vi. If someone finds us and tries to do anything, the castle would surely notice.”

Virgil stopped, Patton had a good point… if someone from the kingdom captured them they wouldn’t be able to do much without Roman or king Emile noticing. “I guess…”

“Why do you feel the need to move? It sounds to me that you don’t want to run into Roman again.”

Virgil blushed and walked over to Patton, “why would I want to see him?! That dork just makes me all emotional and distracted!” He sat down and hit his head on the table, “I can’t be worried about all that if I want to survive out there!”

Patton chuckled and set the plate on the table, “someone really likes that human.”

Virgil looked up, his blush darkening. “And what if I do? He’s a prince! Even if he’s not marrying Logan, why would he want me?”

Patton was about to reply when someone knocked on the door. He looked over at it confused, “did you hear someone knocking too?”

Virgil nodded, “there’s not any more borrowers around… right?”

“Only one way to find out.” Patton walked over to the door, hesitating before opening it. He gasped and immediately tackled the person behind it with a hug.

Virgil stood up and walked over as well, only to freak out when he saw Roman there. Shit, what was he doing here?! He ran over to a piece of metal they had hanging on the wall to check his hair.

Patton let Roman in, well more pulled him in but Roman didn’t mind either way.

Virgil leaned on the table trying to look cool, look cool? Really? All this because of a silly crush?

“I actually came to see Virgil.”

Oh god, Roman’s words definitely pushed him out of his thoughts.

Patton raised an eyebrow, “I mean… not a surprise but I still want to hang put with you.”

Roman chuckled, “I get it, buuuut there’s another primce waiting for you outside in the alley.”

Another prin- “oh.” Patton blushed as he realized who Roman was talking about, “then I guess I’ll be right back!”

Roman watched as Patton sprinted out the door with a small laugh.

Roman’s laugh was so… so perfect. Virgil for the love of, focus! “So I uh, what did you want to talk about?” He tried not to freak out over the fact that Roman kept wearing his hoodie. He looked down at the prince’s sash as he twisted it between his fingers.

“Well… I know it’s been six days, but I really missed you.” Roman walked closer to Virgil and took his hands.

Virgil looked up and blushed again, “I-I’ve missed you too…”

Roman smiled, “that’s relieving to hear.” He took a deep breath, just go for it already!

“Uh… well you know Logan and I aren’t getting married anymore, since we figured out we weren’t actually in love. You helped me figure it out in fact, you listened to me when I questioned my feelings and didn’t judge me because of that… and because you showed me what true love feels like.”

Okay, now Virgil’s face couldn’t be more red, “w-wha-“

Roman cleared his throat, “I mean… you want to spend the rest of your days with someone you love right? No matter what that implies. I have been miserable these past couple of days when we were separated. Being out of the castle was so thrilling, being a borrower with you was something I know I’ll never get tired of.”

Letting go of Virgil’s hands, Roman reached into his pocket and took out his mom’s ring. “I don’t want a kingdom if it means you’re not there with me,” he kneeled down. “And we don’t need a kingdom to be happy, I could never lock you up in a castle and force you to be someone you’re not. You may not admit it but, we do have the same adventurous spirit, and I can’t wait to start a new adventure with you.”

“Virgil, would you make me the happiest borrower in the world and marry me?”

Virgil was truly speechless, the ring Roman was handing him… everything he owned wasn’t even worth half of that! Was he really willing to quit royalty for him? Virgil had never considered his life to be that bad, but compared to being a prince? Sure Roman was right, he could never fit into that lifestyle… and Roman hadn’t been that bad of a borrower. “I..” Virgil gulped, tears forming around his eyes, “I will, I-I do!”

Roman let out the biggest sigh of relief he had ever felt. He took Virgil’s hand and slid the ring on his finger before pulling him to the ground with him.

Virgil chuckled as he landed on Roman’s lap, he ran his ringed hand through his hair and couldn’t wait any longer to seal their lips with a kiss. He couldn’t believe how much he had wanted to kiss Roman, and they were getting married now! He pulled apart after some more seconds, “that was the cheesiest proposal ever.”

Roman snorted, “but you fell for it either way.”

“Yeah,” Virgil smiled, “I definitely fell for it.”