He loved school sometimes and other times he hated it. The times he couldn't be around Virgil was when he hated it the most. Why? He just did, he never really felt any real separation anxiety from his friends before. Really the only person he ever felt that with was Remus. Something told him he was just overreacting but he didn't think so. Or he didn't feel like he was. Roman sat in the corner of the library for his study hall. Virgil was in religion right now so he was bored. They had chosen to take playwriting class together for this semester.

He had quickly become what he had seen Janus doing at the beginning of his stay here. A protective presence that people avoided and were sure to be somewhat civil with Virgil if he was around, but people liked Virgil in general. It was more to deter the newer students who didn't know or needed a hint. However, he never got into a fight, they just looked at him and walked away.

This just means that the two boys were not fighting anymore, and that the two of them could relax just a bit. Janus was glad and it meant he didn't have to worry about Virgil or Roman anymore. Janus and Roman were still holding their truce, and it was February.

This doesn't mean that they liked each other, they both understood that Virgil was a person they both wanted to be close to and just stayed out of each other's way. They no longer gave each other dirty looks and the tension was gone between them. This just meant everyone could relax in the halls and not look for the nearest place to exit if those two got into a brawl.

The school was full of students who had large disciplinary records, they knew how too behave during a school fight between two of the most well known people in the school. It was amazing how Roman had become that kind of person in just a few weeks. But when you become friends with the Headmaster's nephew, it's quite easy to gain popularity.

However, February was a time for love, and Roman liked to imagine the things that he could do with Virgil. It was a new hobby of his. He had been for the last few weeks of January into February. But how to get him to agree to it was the question. He opened his palm and a thin red mist started to surround his fingers. He just twirled them around, he realized he hadn't played with magic for a while.

When he was a little kid, he did it a lot. He would think of these stories with mythical creatures to tell his brother while they played and sometimes he even swore he saw real fairies and other beings in the woods that they played by in the park. Running water was always shimmering with something he couldn't put his hand on. Almost seemed like something was running through the waters and the sound was mixed with some kind of laughter.

His thoughts were interrupted by his hand being slammed down by another, Roman yelped and looked up he was met with Janus. "Hey!" Roman said.

"First of all, if you are learning freelance, you can't do magic in public. They would get you in courses faster than," Janus raised his hand and snaps. "That."Roman raised his eyebrow.

"You seem to speak from experience." Roman said. Janus nodded.

"I do. It was one of the main reasons that I was a dick to Virgil." Janus sat down.

"Really?" Roman asked.

"Calm down, we talked it out. I know that you know he recognized the patterns on your arm." Janus smiled. "It's cute the way he would nurse you back to health with tactics you would only use on a fellow practitioner." Then he continued. "But I was like you. I didn't want to learn about it but magic is something that you can't just not do. It's an itch that makes you crazy if you don't."

Roman knew what he meant, he remembered trying to repress his magic. It ended up with Roman almost exploding the boy's bathroom during a fight.

"I think I know what you mean, I burst the pipes in a fight once when I just didn't want to deal with my powers." Roman shrugged. "It wasn't effective but it prevent me from being blamed for a bigger issue and we got a week off while they fixed it. They were convinced that I did something to the pipes but apparently it just looked like the pipe gave out. But I knew." Roman said. Janus chuckled.

"That's the thing about when you use magic when it forces you to use it, it covers for you. Makes it look like it was done by something else. It's defense." Janus said.

"A defense?" Roman was confused. Janus sighed.

"Magic seems like an unmoving force right? Something that is a force on it's own." Roman wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"I mean it's dubbed as supernatural." Roman reasoned.

"Magic takes its power from the earth, stars, universe and all things that are ever changing. Humans are always evolving and changing. Why would magic not follow the same rules as nature? Nature is never constant." Janus said. "Nature evolves and so does magic." Janus said. "Magic is a force of nature. As you said, it's supernatural. Sure that means that its not exactly inside the laws of nature but nature isn't even in the laws of nature."

"Why are you telling me this? You don't like me." Roman pointed out.

"I may not like you very much, but you make Virgil happy and if you are willing to learn by him teaching you then I am all for that. I am giving you background so it's a little easier to understand it. Also, we have had similar experiences." Janus said.

"You've lost control before?" Roman asked.

"Multiple times actually. It took you one time to realize you shouldn't be repressing what you have. It took me many. One of which is why I got tied up with bad people and why I was sent here." Janus said. "If I could outrun it, then it doesn't matter, gave me and a few other associates the cover we needed, one day I got tired of it and was caught."

"Oh." Roman said. Then he realized that maybe Janus was just trying to extend an olive branch, from what it looked like Roman wasn't going anywhere and neither was Janus.

"I know you are curious so ask." Janus said. Roman shook his head.

"I am just wondering about why magic does that." Roman lied.

"Does what?"

"Helps hide what it actually was." Roman responded while he put his book away. He probably wasn't doing any work this period.

"It was to help Wiccans and Pagans or what was called witches go underground. Those who didn't want to bend to the new religions and didn't want to give up traditions went into hiding. The first few years were difficult. Witch hunters were all over the place and had a good job at spotting where they were. Magic had always been flamboyant and still is." Janus twirled his fingers as yellow sparks flew around. "But it's come a long way. They would only use magic if needed. Oracles and mediums became one, and they are rare."

"Is Virgil a medium?" Roman interrupted.

"What?" Janus asked.

"Is Virgil a medium? He contacted his grandfather a few days ago. Opened a doorway or something? I don't know the technical term for it." Roman said.

Janus nodded. "The Cyrus family is powerful, I wouldn't be surprised if Virgil is one. He's good at healing, it's quite possible. He works in the Veil more than most of us. People expect me to be the most experienced but I am just good at protection shit. Virgil is much better than I." He responded.

"His grandfather also said that there were different witches that were compatible with one another. But wouldn't tell me what was compatible with Virgil." Roman said.

"To be honest, that's not something I know about. I don't know what kind of, for lack of a better term, 'witch' Virgil is. I am a protector and crystal witch." That surprised Roman a little but wasn't completely. "Patton's a green witch, plants are his strong suit. He also is super empathetic so careful of what you project towards him, he might take it harder than most also wouldn't surprise me if he was a kitchen witch. Virgil is up in the air. You would have to ask him."

"Alright." Roman said.

"You don't have to, just learn from him. He teaches in an interesting way. He might actually start closer to spring when things start to grow. That's a good time." Janus said.

"Cool."

"You'll see a change in Patton the most. He's going to get more energetic and hyper. Virgil thrived during Halloween." He looked like he was trying to remember everything.

"I feel like I should be writing all this down." Roman laughed.

"You should at least remember it." Janus said.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"When is your Time f Power?" Roman asked.

"I like that name. But mine is winter. I don't know why, it's the best time for me though." Roman nodded. "But magic starts to realize that it's users need to blend in with those who are practicing. So slowly it started to learn to cover its tracks. If you use magic on someone, the residue isn't there anymore like it once was. Slowly, witches weren't in the limelight anymore and witch hunters died out. There aren't any now but we are still selective, those with magic blood only get a few per bloodline if any. You got the magic and I am guessing the rest of your family has none."

"Not that I've seen." Roman said.

"You would know, my parents adopted me. They barely know anything that I can do. I felt you on the first day, and no doubt Virgil and Patton did."

"Really?" Roman realized that everyone knew but him.

"Virgil probably ignored it for the most part."

"Why?"

"It wasn't his place to tell anyone. It's rude to say anything about it."

"Anything else I should know about magic?" Roman asked.

"Yes, right now you can get away with using only if necessary. As you learn and get better, you won't be able to anymore. You need to keep practicing, Virgil will give you homework. Do it. Trust me. You do this and he will notice it." Janus said. "Who knows, you might even impress him."

"What?" Roman asked. Janus smirked.

"I am not blind, I can see you two like each other." Roman rolled his eyes.

"You said there was another reason you wanted to talk to me?" Roman said, trying to steer the subject from this. He really didn't want to talk with Janus about a possible relationship he could have with Virgil.

Janus nodded and then looked uncomfortable. "I was wondering if there was anything I needed to know about Remus."

"There are a lot of things you should need to know about my brother. And in public, refer to him as either my brother. Never his name." Roman got defensive immediately. Janus and him both knew that Remus was a touchy subject.

"I won't even ask."

"Good." Roman said. He leaned back in his seat to stretch.

"What would be the best way to ask him out?" Roman froze and slowly looked over at Janus.

Did he really just ask that?

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Watching Roman go into protective brother mode was quite funny to Virgil. Not that he would know, the closest thing he has to a brother is Patton and he's the youngest out of the two of them.

"I mean, Remus is his own person but why would he ask me that if he knows that I kinda don't like him. I know he's your friend and we don't get along but I think we have the possibility to get along if we were given some time. But dating my brother is not giving the time we need." Roman was pacing in front of the couch where Virgil sat. He turned and looked at Virgil. "What do you think?"

Virgil shrugged. To be honest, he was the one who told Janus to ask Roman. Even if he didn't, Virgil was sure that Janus would figure it out on his own. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Remus held Roman's opinion in high regards. Talking to him for even a few minutes alone you learn so much about him.

"Virgil, I know that you have other opinions I can see it in your eyes." Roman said. Vrigil sighed and patted the seat next to him. Roman sat down and Virgil started to write.

It is possible that Janus is asking you because Remus cared more about what you think of him than anyone else? Roman looked confused.

"He can't, he's always pushing limits that I set and doing shit that could get both of us arrested." Roman said. Virgil knew what he was talking about. The symbol on the school wall. At least that was what Virgil assumed.

I stayed with you for three days last month. He literally jumped at every opportunity to make me like him or live up to the expectations of him I had because you were his brother. Virgil wrote. Roman looked at him.

"Do you have siblings?" Roman asked. Virgil shook his head.

I was an oops child. I wasn't supposed to even be born, but by chance I was. My parents never had any other children. But it's very clear that I really wasn't supposed to happen. Virgil explained.

"How do you know so much about siblings and how they think then?" Roman asked. Virgil could hear by the tone Roman wasn't being rude but he was impressed.

The psychology class I am in is advanced, it's more educational psych. What I mean by that because you are confused is that we go over some psychology that would be used by teachers and people in the education field. It's a subsection to give us more of a view of what we want to do if we went to college. I want to be an administrator some day so I decided on this class.

Anyway, we just went over older and younger siblings, but I read ahead and twins can fall into the same type of pattern. One takes the older role and one takes the younger. The one who takes the younger role strives to make sure they are approved by their twin. The older protects, in your case with parents that may have been less than involved, you took a nurturing role. Remus wants to make you proud. And he wants your approval.

"Why? I am already proud of him for everything we've done together." Roman said.

It's not enough. For him at least. I assume by what you told me that he was never in the know about things. You always made sure the chores were done, you made sure he did his homework and helped him with it. In a lot of ways, you were his role model despite being the same age. He loves you, Janus asking you for permission might make Remus more comfortable because he wants to know that his brother is okay with it. What did you say to Janus?

"I told him that I needed to think about it a little bit before I had an answer. He told me to take all the time I need, but I think he wants to do something for Valentine's Day." Roman said.

You should say yes. Virgil wrote.

"Are you sure? You aren't being biased?" Roman asked.

Why would I be? I am just thinking about it from if I was Remus' brother or if Logan had done the same thing before he started dating Patton. I don't know everything you went through with him or what impact it has made on you but I know I would want him to be happy. I think Janus would make him happy. Virgil gave him the notepad as he got up. He still needed to change his shirt. He had jumped right into sweatpants when he got back from his history class. Roman had been close behind and Virgil wasn't able to change while Roman went off.

He held up two shirts and Roman pointed to the purple one. "You really think so?" Roman asked. Virgil nodded. "I trust your judgment." Roman said.

Virgil grabbed his notepad. Don't you dare say yes just because I said you should. This is your decision not mine. Virgil said.

"How'd you know I was going to change my mind?" Roman asked. Virgil didn't really want to tell Roman that he was seeing the signs of a crush more clearly over that last week. Closer it got to Valentine's Day the more Roman got antsy and would avoid topics.

Call it intuition. Do you want to say yes? Virgil asked.

"I don't know. I want him to be happy but I still don't like Janus. I know Remus like the back of my hand even though there are things that he does that surprise me but still. He needs someone level. Is Janus level enough for him?" Roman asked. Virgil smiled.

Janus has gotten a lot better from when he first came, he wasn't himself. He has grown into himself very well. He is more than stable enough to make sure Remus doesn't blow things up. Besides he's under court surveillance, so he won't do anything remotely illegal.

"What did he do?" Roman asked. Vrigil knew that the court case was public record so telling Roman really wasn't anything bad.

He ended up getting trouble with cops when they questioned him about a few guys he used to hang out with.

"Oh." Roman thought about it. "Well, I guess Remus did show a liking to him when they met. It might not even go to a relationship, I am going to go tell Janus." Roman said.

Virgil nodded. "Want to come with me?"

Do you want me to?

"Of course, I like your company." Roman said.

Virgil grabbed his sweatshirt and slipped it on. Can we stay in your dorm tonight?

"Sure, pack some things and let me ask Micheal." Roman said. Virgil nodded. He went over and knocked on Logan's door.

"Yes?" He yelled. Virgil opened the door.

"I am going to Roman's tonight and staying over."

"Why?" Logan asked.

"Project." Logan nodded. Virgil put his hands in his pockets. "I'll see you at dinner and then breakfast tomorrow."

"I better, don't make me come looking for you." Logan said. Virgil rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, Mom." Virgil walked out of the door before Logan could respond. Virgil was smiling when he went back and no matter what Roman asked, Virgil never answered him to why he was smiling.