Dragon of No Mercy

Warnings: poor mental health, feeling of waiting for death, starvation

Roman found himself battered and bruised under a dragon claw with his sword far from his reach. He wasn't trading blows with the Dragon Witch, but their much more brutal cousin, Ptolemy. Ptolemy was tired of the Dragon Witch and Roman fighting their battles and no permanent deaths occurring. As a result, he decided to take over while his cousin was out sick.

"You've always wanted a fairytale of a dragon fight and true love as your savior, right," the aggressive foe taunted.

Ptolemy grabbed Roman tightly and tossed him in a cage hard to the point where the Prince's back hit the bars and he landed on his stomach.

"I'm sure your true love will be the only one to notice your distress!" Ptolemy continued to taunt.

"Fat chance! Why would he take notice let alone do anything about it?" Roman responded while coughing.

Roman knew that, unlike the Dragon Witch he was familiar with, the minute his true love would come to his rescue, Ptolemy would just attack him worse than he attacked the Prince almost as if he had Ryona. Even worse than that, he was aware that he hadn't always been the best person, so he saw no reason for his true love to come to his rescue even if he knew the reason for his absence.

Several days passed and, while the physical lacerations healed, Roman felt more emotional pain than he'd want to express. Ptolemy took many opportunities to taunt Roman regarding the whereabouts of his true love and whether or not he should just get send a direct message if his true love wasn't the brightest. He also manipulated Roman's subconscious so that he would have dreams of snuggling with the love of his life only to wake up with reminders of where he actually was. Roman also hadn't been fed anything while he was captive and the cage kept him from using his powers, so he wasn't even able to eat a spoonful of Crofters to save his life. Most of the days consisted of him lying down barely listening to the taunts, feeling the room spin, feeling his stomach growl viciously, and feeling like he was waiting for the moment where he could just dream of his true love and find himself unable to wake up.

Back at the Mind Palace, Logan was reading one of his many books just as Patton and Virgil were returning from a date. He placed his book down and looked around.

"Something wrong, Lo?" Virgil asked.

"Does anyone else feel like we're missing something?" the mind asked.

Virgil looked like he was thinking.

"Well, there's no loud singing. Maybe Princey got exhausted after his latest battle," the emo suggested.

"Maybe, but... something just doesn't feel right about that explanation," Logan answered.

From that first day onward, Logan found himself working on so many plans and ideas for Thomas and the small amount of free time he allowed himself to have was spent feeling concerned about Roman. He brought up his thoughts to Patton and Virgil, but he guessed that the creative aspect not technically ducking out might be a reason why they didn't seem as concerned as he was.

One night, he was finishing up his work when he found himself agitated by not knowing what could be wrong with Roman. He decided to check Roman's room first and check the Imagination if he wasn't there. Logan took a deep breath and quietly made his way to Roman's door while everyone was asleep. He knocked gently before checking the doorknob. After noticing it was unlocked, Logan slowly opened it and soon noticed that Roman's bed was bare. He was wondering how long it had been bare, but his focus shifted to one of Roman's spell books before he ran off to the Imagination. He wasn't exactly sure what directions to go in, but something was telling him that he should look in a few caves since he last heard he was fighting the Dragon Witch. He looked in several caves, but he couldn't find Roman.

It took several hours to find, but he peeked into a cave to see a sleeping on the verge of waking up. After noticing that the Dragon Witch looked different than the one Roman constantly described, he looked around to see a person in a cage. He tiptoed towards the cage and noticed that it was Roman, but he looked pale, his shirt seemed bigger than usual, and he looked exhausted like he was hanging by a thread. Roman looked towards Logan with dull eyes and tried to speak until the latter shushed him. He recited an illusion spell from the book with the intention of the Ptolemy soon seeing Roman still in the cage once he woke up. Afterwards, he grabbed Roman's hand and recited a spell that brought then home.

Once they made it home, Roman fell over with a thud and caused Virgil and Patton to run over to the two of them.

"Roman! What happened?!" Patton shouted with worry.

Virgil helped Logan escort Roman to bed.

"Dragon Witch's cousin... had no mercy..." Roman tried to explain with as much energy as he could muster.

Virgil looked at Logan's concerned expression and the health-deprived Prince before looking down with guilt.

"I'm the embodiment of Anxiety! How was I not informed that something was wrong?" Virgil ranted.

Logan rushed to the kitchen and emo was trying to keep Roman awake with a conversation. Patton came inside the room and apologized many times to him.

"We thought you were just exhausted from your recent Dragon Witch battle. Logan kept saying that something must've been wrong, but we didn't think it was anything you couldn't handle," Patton explained.

Logan brought a tray of food for Roman. He placed it on Roman's bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. Patton tilted his head as he noticed...something between the two and nudged Virgil to leave the room with him.

Logan spent the month taking care of Roman. He provided him with food, water, and sunlight through the window since the cave provided none. Roman was steadily regaining enough strength to tell Logan some of what happened in the cave and even Ptolemy's name. He still had some emotional damage done to him, so Logan turned to Emile and Patton for help. Roman experienced nightmares that he was still in the cave, so Logan provided an air freshener that smelled of roses to help him.

After over a month, Logan was reading a story for Roman until the Prince tapped his shoulder.

"Logan... I never thanked you for helping me. I know I must've replaced a lot of your schedule and I might not be completely better, but I'm certainly in a better spot than when you found me," Roman told him.

"Of course, Roman. I just regret not finding you sooner. I've just been so busy and I was constantly told you were okay, but I still felt that something was wrong. I mean, I know nothing was wrong with Thomas, but I guess I... missed you," Logan responded.

Roman gave a small smile and blushed.

"I initially thought you wouldn't come. Ptolemy said that... my true love would be the only one to notice my distress," Roman admitted.

Logan looked at Roman and took in what he heard. He gently hugged Roman and softly exhaled.

"I guess this explains why I don't entirely detest you no matter how many times I try to tell myself otherwise. I know it will take you a while longer to be in a better place, but would like me to provide you with some company and maybe a source of a kiss and a cuddle in case you need it?"

"I think I'd like that, Logan. Thank you."

They continued to spend time together and their more-than-platonic companionship had a slow start, but all that mattered was that they enjoyed each other's company they were more than willing to look out for each other.