A/N Remy is by far the most complex character that I've ever given a voice, and it was one of the reasons I struggled with writing this for so long. I wanted to be able to capture his personality and his conflicting thoughts while still keeping some secrets about him, and it was very difficult for me. In the first few chapters it may be possible to see my conflict with Remy's characters (hell, maybe you can see it throughout the whole book) but I tried to make the transition of who he is now, and who he is going to become as smooth as I possibly could. Anyway, enjoy this short chapter that I worked on for many many hours until I got it pretty much right.

"Remy," Sydney said, dropping down onto the bed next to him. Remy absently shifted accordingly to make room, which Sydney stretched out to fill almost immediately. "You're a terrible conversationalist".

"You know me," Remy groaned, his eyes moving over the words in his play. It was a very old copy that he had received as a gift long before he had moved in with the Reed family.

He loved to read, always had, and it sometimes bothered Sydney when he felt like Remy wasn't paying attention. This wasn't true. Remy had been listening to every word since Sydney had entered his bedroom. He was just choosing not to answer since it seemed that all his friend wanted to talk about was how Remy felt without having an appointment that afternoon.

He felt the same.

"Remy," Sydney snapped, exacerbated and Remy spared him a bored glance for a second before directing his attention back to his book. "Fuck you. Ignoring me so you can read Hamlet for the billionth time you geek".

For a moment, Remy didn't understand why Sydney was his best friend, but as the other boy began to speak again, still about how Remy should give him attention, he couldn't help but to remember.

When Remy had moved in with the Reed's at the age of twelve, he had been introduced to the son of his adoptive father's brother, Sydney, who was thirteen at the time. Sydney had been many things that Remy wasn't. He was happy, loud, tall and athletic, but none of that really contributed to their friendship. What did was Sydney's persistence.

It was absolutely horrible, the way the kid got whatever he wanted, from everyone. Sydney was cute, and he knew it, and he had the ability to drive people insane with his voice alone.

That's how they had become friends. Sydney hadn't left Remy alone until he opened up to him, and when he had, the older boy had clung on tighter until they had fallen into a routine similar to that of best friends.

"Remy," Sydney whined, sounding more like he had just finished preschool rather than his freshman year of college. "I want to talk to you".

"We talk all the time," Remy commented, still reading. It was no problem having a conversation and reading at the same time, especially with novels he was a familiar with as this one. Remy doubted that he even need to look at the page in order to recite all the words.

"Well I-" Sydney began to argue back, but Remy was no longer listening. His attention was on a single line of the play, though he was no longer looking at the pages as he considered it.

"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain".

For the first time in a long time, Remy thought about something other than his past while reading this quote.

For whatever reason, he thought about the silver haired boy at the pool with the light green eyes and smile that was just a tad too big for his face. Whose teeth were just that white and straight? Was that even natural? Remy would have to ask him next time they met- that was, if they ever did. The chances were probably quite slim. It was very rare for his appointments to be canceled; so rare that this just happened to be the first time.

Did he want to see him again, anyways? Remy immediately thought the answer was no, but in another part of his brain he was thinking about his shift at the bookstore during Atti's Friday swimming class, and whether or not he could switch shifts with Henry once and awhile. Did Cecil Clarke even work at the pool on Fridays?

Remy's eyes widened a bit when he realized how ridiculous he was being.

"Hey," Sydney interrupted, snapping his fingers for his attention. Remy blinked slowly, and then scowled at his best friend.

"I am not a dog".

"You were completely zoned out," Sydney claimed. He had moved within the last- however long it had been since Remy had drifted off- and now his feet were up against Remy's very neatly organized desk.

"Your shoes better be-"

"They're new," Sydney interrupted, his voice strange. Remy, after only a moment when of silent hesitation, slid his eyes to his friend's face, only to find Sydney's expression extremely concerned.

"What?"

"Are you alright?" Instead of his usual confident and somewhat annoying voice, Sydney sounded worried and a bit unsure of what to say.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Remy asked, his tone bored despite the curiosity burning in his stomach. Typically, he was good at quickly analyzing situations. Remy was always paying attention, even when it looked like he wasn't- he had noticed Cecil watching him from across the pool that morning without even lifting his head- but since he had uncharastically spaced out for the last however long, he was at a lost to the reasons behind Sydney's concern.

"You got distracted, Rem. From reading". Remy's eyes dropped down to his book, still open across his forearms. "Are you feeling okay? I know you don't want to talk about it, but your appointment today-"

"You're right," Remy said, his voice very hard with its lack of emotion, "I don't want to talk about it".

Sydney's blue eyes widened a fraction. "Remy-"

"What is talked about during my appointments stays in my appointments. I'm not even thinking about that, anyways. Some stupid boy was there when I was picking up Atticus and I'm just still bothered by it for some reason".

"Some stupid boy," Sydney echoed, his facial expression somewhat amused and Remy narrowed his eyes but continued explaining anyways.

"Yes. Some fool with poorly dyed silver hair".

"Cecil Clarke?" Sydney asked, his eyebrows raised but a smile still on his face.

For some reason, Remy hadn't been expecting Sydney to know who he was talking about. Sure, Sydney typically was the person who picked Atticus up from his bi-weekly lessons, but it had never occurred to Remy that Cecil may have gone up and hit on his best friend as well.

Maybe, Remy thought, not even bothered by the prospect, he's just like that with everyone. Remy was proud to say he hadn't for one second allowed himself to believe he had been special in some way for catching Cecil's eye.

"Did you find him attractive?" Sydney asked, his eyes drooping as he pulled at a loose thread in the seam of his jeans. He was clearly trying to act casual about the question, which old slightly aided in Remy's nerves.

"What?" He could hardly believe his best friend had just asked that question. "Why would you think-"

"Well you were just distracted from reading thinking about him. I was wondering if maybe you were thinking about his appearance?" Remy blinked up at Sydney, who was still looking at his pants. "So? Do you think he's attractive or what?"

"I already told you that he had stupid silver hair".

"That's not an answer," Sydney pointed out and Remy scowled at the realization that Sydney actually thought he was interested.

"Did you find him attractive?" Remy shot back and Sydney's smile widened a bit further.

"I'm straight," the blonde haired boy reminded, still grinning and Remy just shook his head and looked back down at his book.

"I'm asexual". Sydney's loud sigh filled the room and Remy tensed at the sound, preparing himself for some sort of an argument that never came.

It was strange. Sydney always felt the need to argue over Remy's sexuality, as if he could ever come up with an argument compelling enough to get him to change.

Despite his unease, Remy didn't bother looking up at his friend, even as Sydney began to slowly creep across his bedroom.

The room was silent for all of three seconds before Sydney grabbed the handle of Remy's bedroom door and threw it open, causing the wood to smack against the wall loudly. Remy opened his mouth to yell about the noise and how he would castrate his best friend if there was so much as a scratch in his wall, but Atticus's giggling filled the room instead.

"Gotcha!" Sydney exclaimed, leaning forward and scooping the small boy up from his place in the hallway. Atticus laughed, his voice very small and sweet and Remy almost wanted to smile at the sound.

He didn't, but he spared his younger brother with an affectionate glance when the boy's eyes landed on him. Remy continued to watch, his gaze up even though his head was tilted down towards his book as Atticus began to squirm in his cousins grasp. "Woah woah woah, little man. You must pay the price for sneaking up on us," Sydeny demanded, ticking Atticus for half a second before the small boy began to screech loudly in amusement. Remy winced at the loud noise as Sydney chuckled and gently lowered Atti back down to his feet.

"Remy," Atti said immediately, running across the hardwood flooring in order to get himself momentum and launch himself into his brother's bed. "You're reading again? Would you read to me?"

Atticus pushed himself up onto the high bed and then situated himself on the covers next to Remy so he was directly beside him without their skin touching. Sydney looked very thoughtful upon noticing the understanding the younger sibling seemed to have for his older brother.

Remy didn't like to be touched, and Atticus respected that often, even at his young age.

"I'm not sure you'd like this play," Remy told him, placing his thumb in the book and folding it closed.

Atticus blinked up at him with very large blue eyes. "But I like everything you like," he said, so certain. Remy sighed and looked away from the little boy, but raised a hand and ruffled Atti's hair in a rare display of affection. Atticus's blue eyes lit up with happiness and he grinned at his older brother. "Thanks Remy".

Remy was about to point out that he hadn't actually done anything that earned thanks, but Atticus has a short attention span and he began to talk to Sydney about swim class.

"You went under water for five whole seconds?" Sydney asked, his voice mock amazed as he pulled Remy's desk chair up to the edge of the bed and straddled it to face the enthuastic youngster.

"Yes!" Atticus claimed happily, shifting on the bed, his small hands grasping the covers with small fists to keep his balance as he pulled himself up to sit. "Mr. Cecil says that I'm better than he was at my age". Remy's eyebrows shot up at the name, but they lowered quickly, thankfully just a second before he felt Sydney's eyes on his face.

"Me. Cecil, huh?" Sydney asked and Atti nodded quickly. "So you like him, yeah? He's a good teacher?"

Atticus's face flushed pink and he looked very bashful for a second. He averted his eyes from Sydney and absently giggled. "What?" Remy couldn't help but to ask, and Sydney grinned at him for some unknown reason.

"Mr. Cecil is a great teacher. He's very silly sometimes and he has cool hair".

"Does he require you to say that?" Remy asked and Atticus's eyebrows furrows adorably.

"No," he said, clearly confused. Sydney snorted. "I like it so much. I wish that my hair looked like his". Atticus crosses his eyes as he tried to peer up at his own hair and then sighed. "He is so lucky".

Remy considered telling Atticus that Cecil Clarke wasn't actually lucky, he had just used an unacceptable amount of hair dye to get it like that, but with one glance at Sydney, who was giving him a knowing look, he gave his attention back to his book.

Sydney told Remy that he would ruin Atticus's childhood if he continued to 'rain on his little boy parade', so he tried to bite his tongue as often as he could manage.

Remy went back to reading his book as Sydney continued to coax Atticus into speaking more about Cecil Clarke, but found he was often distracted with the conversation, and instead of actually reading his eyes would get stuck on the page as his whole focus was on Atticus describing the ways that Cecil made him laugh.

Remy swore he was only listening because he loved his brother, not because he was curious.

A/N Ending this was the hardest thing I've ever done ever. I'm sorry that it comes to a somewhat awkward close.