Bad Boy Meets Battered (part 2)

Warnings: abuse, not an expert in law, implication of forcing prostitution onto a minor

After a few days of having Roman stay at his apartment and using his reputation to protect Roman, Dylan was well aware that he can't keep Roman from his house as long as his parents weren't behind bars. With the help of some legal advice from his mother and some makeup and fashion tips from his official boyfriend, Dylan was prepared to go to Roman's house and pretend to be Roman with some recording equipment hidden in clever places. Dylan paid for an Uber and typed in the address to his parents' house since he trusted them to help.

"Dylan, I don't know if I want you to do this," Roman stated.

"Hey, come on, babe. You said that the only behavior that's considered a red flag is if you stand up to them. As long as I let them take control, there won't be a claim that I enforced it," Dylan responded.

Roman hugged Dylan tightly and got a hug back that was just as tight.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," Roman confessed.

"As long as you're safe, I'll be fine."

Dylan lightly shoved Roman to the Uber before heading inside the house. He wasn't surprised that the two authority figures tore him a new one thinking he was Roman, so he felt glad that he recorded the evidence.

For several days, Roman took refuge with Dylan's parents and Dylan continued to pose as Roman until school. By the time they were in school, Roman would occasionally recognize the makeup and notice new pains and offer to get back home. Dylan would deny the offer and then send some of the footage to Roman. At the end of the day, Dylan would pose as Roman again while Roman brought the footage to Dylan's parents.

On the last day, Roman clung to Dylan whenever he had the chance to since he had more lacerations on him than usual. As much as he wanted to hug him in the halls, Roman knew that such an action would be saved for when the rest of the students didn't see. Dylan's mom came by at the end of the day and both boys got into the car.

When they made it to her home, Dylan revealed footage that showed Roman's parents continue their usual abuse and then get more aggressive when they somehow found out Dylan was an impostor and that Roman was "safe from them". The parents grumbled what they'd do when Roman came back without knowing that they were being recorded and then the recording cut out. Roman couldn't help but feel angry. It was one thing going through with the torment himself, but it was another thing seeing someone he cared about going through the same thing. Roman proceeded to clean Dylan's lacerations and before Roman could blow up, Dylan gave him some soothing words in the form of a reminder that they had enough evidence to get Roman's parents into legal trouble.

On the day of court, the intentions seemed clear that Roman's parents were trying to pull off a great impression since they looked fancier than they ever did in Roman's life. Dylan found it easy to identify when Roman's parents were withholding information, which was something his own mom silently felt proud of. Dylan whispered some carefully worded questions for his mother to ask the two abusers; questions that caused some mild reactions of nervousness that they thought the judge wouldn't notice. After a while, they seemed pretty smug since it the abusers thought they'd win by default over "he said-she said" until Dylan was at the stand explaining how, after cleaning Roman's wounds one night, he spoke with his mom to get legal input before planning to pretend to be Roman and record every type of abuse for a few days up until they found out about Dylan's disguise. The abusers were going to claim something until there was a reminder that it's legal if one party has consent with recording and that there's no law against the disguise since it did no harm to Roman or anyone else. As Dylan's mom played the recordings, it seemed pretty clear that the lawyer the abusers hired wasn't informed of what was going on. Everything from berating to forcing adult female clients onto "Roman" in an attempt to "straighten him out" was captured for everyone to see and the arguments attempted against the recordings fell on deaf ears. In the end, the two lost custody of Roman and he would be staying in his uncle's custody until 18.

Once court was over, Roman and Dylan hugged as tight as possible and chuckled. As they pulled away, they saw Dylan's mom walk up to them.

"I'm really proud of you Dylan," she explained.

"Thanks, Mom. I appreciate that. And thanks for helping both of us with this," Dylan responded before Roman expressed the same gratitude.

"Still want to distance yourself from law school?" Dylan's mom joked.

"Well, I'll think about it, but it'll be my choice. Until then, I want to provide my own labels without pressure," Dylan smugly proclaimed.

Dylan wrapped his arm around Roman's waist as they walked away and Dylan's mom felt eager to let her husband know how much their boy was growing up.