Tumgik
#it's been almost a year since i went ro one. holy shit.
feelbokkie · 9 months
Text
Don’t Let Me Love You | Chapter 20 (end)
Tumblr media
pairing: Felix x fem reader; Chan x fem reader
genre: smau, fake dating, crack, angst, fluff, non!idol au
pov: 1st/2nd person (depending on how you view it)
warnings: swearing,
summary: With the upcoming wedding of her cousin and her ex, Y/n is in desperate need of a date for the wedding that will show the happy couple that she moved on.
word count: 875
screenshot count: 14
©feelbokkie (2023) — all rights reserved. reposting/modification of any kind is not tolerated.
previous | masterlist
bonus content: memes part 2
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
You dig around you bag for your keys as you climb the stairs to your apartment. You spent the entire day at the library taking notes from Sunny and Ro on key details that you wanted in both the anime and the live action that were set to be made within the next couple of years. You and Hyunjin agreed weeks ago that you would make your own lists and meet up when you were done before you went to the executives. The act of rereading your comics were a great distraction from everything else going on.
"Holy fucking shit!" You scream when you look up and see a dark figure standing outside your apartment.
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Felix steps out of the shadows and sheepishly smiles.
"You can't just lurk in the shadows like a creep, Lix." You place your hand over your chest to settle your heart.
"I wasn't being a creep, I was waiting for you. Which, now that I said it out loud does sound creepy." He speaks quickly. You pull your key out of your bag and open the front door, letting Felix go in first.
Your heart is still beating fast, but you're unsure if it's because you were just startled to death or because Felix is standing in your apartment after a week of not seeing each other. It's the longest you two have gone without seeing each other since you got back from Jeju.
"What's in the bag?" You ask as you watch Felix set down a bag on your coffee table.
"Ah, well there's the cinnamon crumb cake that you like since you probably didn't have dinner yet and I know how much you like to have dessert first. A-and I was going to get flowers but I know you they make you sad because of how fast they die so I bought lego ones. Only, I didn't know if I should buy the individual ones or the bouquet so I bought all of them." He's speaking quickly again and refusing to make eye contact with you. You've never seen him nervous before, it's kind of cute how squirmy he is.
"You came over to build legos?" You quirk your head to the side. Your heart drops in disappointment.
"No--I mean we can if you want to but-- fuck," He pauses and squeezes his eyes shut, scrunching his nose in concentration.
"Felix, what's wrong?" You set your stuff down on the floor and walk closer to Felix. Your heart is pounding in your ears again.
"Ah, fuck it," He mutters before cupping your face and quickly pressing his lips into yours.
You two stand like that for what feels like eternity. Your eyes flutter shut and you melt into his touch. Almost too soon, Felix pulls away from you. Your eyes slowly open and you're met with Felix's worry filled eyes.
"What...?" You're certain that his simple kiss cut off all oxygen from going into your brain.
"I've been miserable all week. I miss that weird little squeak you do when you laugh that's both so subtle and so noticeable." Felix drops his hands and steps back.
"I squeak?" You laugh.
"You do! I also noticed how boring everything smells in comparison to you. You smell like paper, ink, chocolate, and apples--which is weird because I don't think I've seen you consume a single fruit the entire time we've known each other." He scratches his head and smiles widely at you.
"I eat fruit!" You laugh harder, tears forming in your eyes.
"It doesn't count if they're in a dessert." He laughs. He pauses for a second, looking at you in the eyes, straight into your soul. "The world seems so much darker now. And not in the sense of like dread and horror, but all of the colors look more muted somehow. A-and I miss the way you fit in my arms, which, by the way, feels like they were meant for holding you. Like--"
"Like the missing piece to a puzzle." You say softly. Your heart skips several beats and it takes you a second to remember to breathe.
"Exactly! And, and everything I eat just doesn't taste as good as it used to. And I realized, that everything is better with you. You're right, you did intrude on my life. You came into my life like a stray puppy and I want to keep you."
"I'm scared, Felix." You whisper, dropping your eyes to the floor.
"I'm absolutely terrified." Felix tucks his finger under your chin and tilts your head up, forcing you to look at him. "But you're worth that fear, Y/n. I don't think I would be able to live with myself if I just let you walk out of my life without even trying."
"What if I fuck you up?" Your voice cracks.
"You've already fucked me up. In the best way possible. You took over all of my senses--you made me fall in love with you."
"But--" Felix grabs your face again and presses a long kiss to your forehead. He pulls away and l looks you in the eyes, still holding your face.
"Please, just let me love you."
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Buy me a coffee?
Tag list:
Red means that it wouldn't let me tag you
@primoppang @junebug032 @jaydebow @streetrebelrootsdistinguish @sanriiolino @hyynee @muddy-waters @usercaiskz @skzofhearts @qweebsarse @amara-mars @stayconnecteed @blueforte @soonyoungblr @dandycharmer @hibuki-chan @jihanlovic @fylithia @chlodavids @its-hannjisung @hash2013 @felixglow @procrastinationprodigy @tfshouldidohere @weebsrequiem @swiftly-heart @mybabywearschanel @end0rchans @curly-fr13s @stvrfir3 @qveenbibi @pink-rose-chans-baby @sserafimez @yennifersgeralt @gemisea @farfromsugafanfic @veedoesntknaur @felixrealbabymama @mrsseals16 @rag-iii @captivq @idkwimdahyd
321 notes · View notes
johnsbleu · 1 year
Text
Hold My Hand: John Wick x Reader Chapter 146
Tumblr media
warnings: dual pov hmh masterlist
I haven’t seen my girls face-to-face in three days now, and it’s been killing me! This is the first time I’ve been away from them and it’s been really tough. I haven’t been away from Ronan since she’s been born, and the last time I was away from Y/N was before we were even married. I hope they’ll be as excited to see me as I am to see them.
I went up to the lake house to help Jimmy get some final touches done to it since we’re having Dan’s birthday party there this weekend with the family. It was fun to hang out with Jimmy and just have some good laughs, but I have to admit that I miss my girls so much.
Looking to my left, I wave at Jimmy as he pulls into his driveway, then I make my way up mine and smile when I see Bleu in the yard sleeping underneath the shade of a tree. He perks up when he hears my car, then he runs over to greet me as I get out.
“Hey, boy,” I smile, patting his side.
Bleu runs to the door and wags his tail as he waits for me, and I laugh quietly. He always wants to show me where the girls are. I open the door and watch as he walks inside, and I look up and smile when I see Y/N running from out of the kitchen.
“Hi, hi, hi!” she runs over to me and jumps into my arms as we kiss, and I hug her tight as she wraps her legs around my waist, “Oh my god! I missed you!”
“I missed you too!” I smile as I hug her, then I lean back and look at her, “God, you definitely got more beautiful while I was gone.”
Y/N scoffs, then she leans forward to kiss me as I carry her to the couch. I sit down with her straddling my waist as we kiss, and I let out a content sigh when she buries her face in the crook of neck. I rub my hands up and down her sides, then I smile when she sits back in my lap and looks at me.
“I missed you,” she whispers, cupping my face as she holds my gaze.
“I missed you too,” I kiss her palm, then I watch as she sits on the couch, “How have things been here? Bug’s sleeping?”
Y/N nods as she reaches for my hand, “Things have been good! Bug went down for her nap just a little bit ago. When you called and said you were on your way home, I was trying to keep her awake until you got here, but I left her for two minutes so I could pee and came back out to see her zonked on the floor.”
I laugh quietly, “That’s okay. Has she been good? I know we FaceTimed but I didn’t get to talk to you much yesterday since we were both busy.”
“She was really good! I had a girl’s day yesterday. Tess and I went to Amanda’s house, but we brought the kids. With Ro’s separation anxiety, I didn’t want to leave her with someone else, but she really didn’t give a shit whether I was there or not because she got to play with her friends.” Y/N says as we laugh, then she nods, “But she’s been really good. She slept in bed with me though. I hate that you weren’t here.”
“I know,” I nod as I relax back on the couch and prop my feet up on the coffee table, “I think the last time I was away from you was…I actually can’t remember.”
Y/N tilts her head as she thinks, “It was before we got married. Italy? No, not then. I showed up at the hotel. Holy shit, when was it?”
“Oh! I remember,” I say as I look at her, “Right before I proposed. When I went to your mom’s house to talk to her.”
“Oh my god, that was like…” Y/N looks around with wide eyes, “Almost two years ago.”
I chuckle as I look at her, “We haven’t slept without one another for almost two years.”
“Sick of me yet?”
“Nope, just getting even more obsessed,” I laugh as I lean over to kiss her, “I wish you would have come with me, to be honest.”
Y/N smiles as she nods, “Me too.”
“You had your girl’s night though. You deserved to have some fun, and I hope you did.”
“I did,” she nods, then she shrugs, “But I missed you. I missed you snoring in bed.”
I laugh as I playfully shove her arm, then I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her over to sit with me, “You had a good time with your friends though?”
“I did, we just had some food and drinks, had some chats about our annoying husbands, then I came home.” she says, and I chuckle when she smirks at me, “Nah, I gushed about you as usual. What’s new, right? What did you and Jimmy do?”
“Talked about our amazing wives and children.” I say, and she smiles at me, “We had the A/C fixed at the lake house and got a few other things done. I completely fixed up our room and bathroom downstairs. The bathroom just needed some final touches, then I got Ronan’s room done too. We just need to bring the crib we bought for there.”
“I’m excited to see it.” she says, then she snuggles into my arms as she leans her head on my chest.
We sit in silence together for a few moments, and I smile when she tilts her head up to look at me. I lean down to kiss her a few times while we have childless time together, then I start to smile when I hear Ronan crying.
“Go get her, she’ll be so happy to see you.” she whispers, and I lean down to kiss her before I get up from the couch.
I smile as I head upstairs to Ronan’s room and slowly push the door open, and Ronan juts her bottom lip out as she cries, one large tear coming from her left eye. I smile as I walk over to turn off her noise machine and to open the curtains, then I reach out for her as she cries.
“Why are you cryin’?” I whisper to her as I bounce her in my arms, and she leans her back to look at me, “Hi.”
Ronan still has her bottom lip jutted out as she looks at me for a moment, then she scratches her fingers against my beard before smiling wide and leaning against my chest. I hold her tight in my arms for a few moments before I walk over to put her on the changing table and get her out of this rank diaper.
“Hey, peach…”
“Yeah?”
I pick up Ronan and walk to the door to look at Y/N in the living room, “Do you want me to put her into something different?”
“Uh, just some different pajamas.” she says, shrugging, “Thought we’d just order something for dinner while we packed.”
“Sounds good.” I nod. I start to set Ronan down so I can grab some new pajamas but she just kicks her legs and starts to cry, so I hold her with one arm as I open her drawer, “Did you miss me?”
Ronan kicks her legs and babbles, and I feel the drool sliding down my arm as I hold her. I grab out some pajamas for her, then I carry her downstairs. Y/N looks over at us as we come down, and she smiles when Ronan squeals loudly.
“Did you miss dada?” she asks, which prompts Ronan to start kicking her legs wildly as she squeals.
I kiss Ronan’s cheek when I sit down with her in my lap, then with Y/N’s help, we quickly get her pajamas on. I reach for a toy that is on the coffee table, and Y/N and I completely disappear from Ronan’s sight when the toy is presented to her.
“Chopped liver now.” I say, relaxing back on the couch.
“Yeah, join the club.” Y/N jokes, then she smiles at me, “I just thought pizza or something would be good. I didn’t do any laundry or cleaning while you were gone, I won’t lie.”
I laugh as I look around, “The house looks fine.”
“I’m a pig when you’re not here.” she laughs, and I nudge her arm and shake my head.
“No, you’re not.” I laugh, then I sit up and look over at Ronan. I lean over and kiss her cheek, and she holds up her toy to show me, “Think she’ll crawl soon?”
Y/N hums as she thinks, then she shrugs, “I would assume so. She sits on her own, and this weekend I saw her doing the rocking back and forth thing, so I would assume she’ll start crawling within the next few weeks.”
I look down at Ronan and laugh as she ‘sings’ and makes noise, and I kiss the top of her head and pull her into my lap. I hold her up so she can stand on my legs, but she wiggles around and babbles nonsense loudly.
“You sure you’re ready for a road trip with us?”
“I am very ready,” I smile as I look over at Y/N, and she leans down to kiss me, “Can’t wait to spend the weekend up there.”
Y/N smiles as she holds up Ronan next to her face, “Us too!”
__
**
The car ride up to the lake house wasn’t bad since you waited until Ronan would be down for a nap. She slept the whole way there and only woke up about 10 minutes before you arrived. She’s currently sitting in the highchair waiting for John to get her some food, and she squealing loudly and babbling to everyone walking past.
Since John is getting Ronan fed, you decided to go downstairs to set up the crib in Ronan’s room. John is coming down to help as soon as he gets Ronan some food.
You smile as you look at Ronan’s room, and you walk over and check out the view from the window. Last time you were here, this room wasn’t even here, but Jimmy thought it would be a good idea to knock down the wall and put in a bedroom for Ronan, so that’s what he did this winter. It looks really good, and it’s nice that Ronan can be downstairs with you and John when you go to bed rather than being upstairs.
“Hey…” John smiles as he walks into the room, then he gestures, “What do you think?”
“I love it! I love the cute little plants all over and how it ties into our room,” you say, then you reach up to touch the cute little fuzzy pink deer head, “I love this.”
John chuckles, “Thought it was kind of ironic seeing as we don’t hunt.”
“It’s cute.” you laugh, then you reach for his hands and smile at him, “Thanks for doing this. If she could talk, she’d tell you that she loves this.”
“I think so,” he nods as he looks around, then he points at the toys, “I got her some new stuff that she might like too.”
**
Y/N looks up at me and smiles as she nods, “She’ll love it.”
I lean down and cup her face as I kiss her, and she wraps her arms around my waist as we make out for a few rare uninterrupted minutes. Y/N tilts her head to the side as I slide my tongue into her mouth, and I smile when she reaches down to grope me over my pants.
“Hey, hey, hey…” I laugh as she slouches and juts her bottom lip out, “Tonight, what do you say?”
“Yes!” she smiles wide as she nods, then she throws her arms around my neck and kisses me as I hold her and carry her in my arms back to our room.
“Hey,” Tess calls out downstairs, “Ronan keeps doing some thing to me, but I don’t know what it means.”
I laugh as I take Y/N’s hand and head upstairs, then we walk into the kitchen and see Ronan sitting in her highchair. I furrow my brow as I walk closer, then I watch as Ronan signs that she wants more food.
“She’s signing,” Y/N smiles proudly, “John has been teaching her some basic signs.”
“That’s amazing,” Bev smiles.
Y/N walks over and cuts the other half of the banana into small pieces, then she places them on Ronan’s tray, and Ronan wastes no time when she sees. She stuffs banana into her mouth and gets it all over her face, but she’s so damn happy to be eating.
“She knows the signs for ‘more’, ‘dad’, ‘mom’, and ‘food’, of course.” Y/N smiles as she looks at me, “Our little smarty pants.”
I smile when I look at Ronan with banana all over her, then I grab a napkin to wipe it off, “I read that it helps your baby communicate and keeps their frustration low.”
Bev nods, “That makes sense. Babies can’t always communicate verbally what’s going on.”
I shrug, “And she hasn’t said her first word yet, so I figured I’d teach her.”
“She’ll start talking soon, Jonathan.” Bev smiles, squeezing my arm.
“Watch this. Ro, where is dada?” Y/N asks, signing ‘dad’, then she points around the room, “Hmm, hmm, hmm, where is dada?”
Ronan looks at Y/N and smiles, then she only signs ‘dad’ as Ronan looks around. Ronan looks at me and smiles, then she smacks her hands on the tray and screeches happily.
“Good job!” I smile as I lean down to kiss her, “She’s a smart little bug.”
I clean up the tray and Ronan’s face, then I take off her bib and set her down so she can play with Finn. He crawls over to her with some of his toys, and I smile when I see him hold up one to show her. Ronan bounces in place and giggles as Finn plays with her, and she squeals loudly when he imitates a plane engine.
Leaning back against the counter, I smile as I watch my beautiful baby girl grinning like the happiest baby on the planet.
__
Standing on the sun deck, I look out at the water as the sun goes down and I take a moment to think about how much my life has changed. It’s something that is always on my mind, but today has been so good that I have to take an extra moment to really be grateful for how far I’ve come.
If someone would have told me years ago that I would meet the most wonderful woman who would change my life, I would have never believed them. I never in a million years would think I would be married to an incredible woman who is everything that I could ever want. She’s smart, kind, understanding, so damn sexy, and just beautiful inside and out. The fact that we haven’t lost the spark between us as well is pretty amazing. Not that I ever think we will, I’m crazy about her.
I can’t imagine my life without Y/N, and I certainly couldn’t imagine my life without Ronan. Being a dad wasn’t something that I thought I’d ever be, so I’m so grateful to Y/N for giving me the opportunity. I just hope I’m doing a good job.
“Hey, cutie…” Y/N smiles as she walks up to the sundeck, “Come here often?”
I look over at her and smile as I stand up to allow her to stand in front of me. I wrap my arms around her waist and bury my face in the crook of her neck, and she pulls my arms around her tighter.
“Ro is down?”
“She is,” she nods, then she looks at me and smiles, “What are you doing up here?”
I shrug as I look out at the water, “Just thinking.”
“Well, come on, Wick, fill me in!” she laughs, and I kiss her cheek before I stand next to her.
“Today has been great, hasn’t it?” I say, and she laughs as she furrows her brow a little. “Every now and then, I just start to think about how much my life has changed since we met.”
Y/N turns to face me, then she leans against the railing, “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I nod, then I shrug as I look out at the sun setting, “It’s days like these where I think about how far I’ve come, everything I went through…”
“You went through a lot. Ya know, not many people can say they literally fought like hell for their life and mean it. They mean it metaphorically, but I know it better than anyone how literal it is. I see it every time we’re in bed,” she whispers as she reaches over and touches the scars on my arms and chest, “I see the hell you went through, and I’m grateful that you’re so damn stubborn sometimes because you could have easily complied and said ‘you know what, I give up’, but you didn’t. You kept fighting. You kept fighting because you knew there was a better life out there for you.”
I let out a small laugh as I stand up straight and look over at her, “You know, you’re really good at these talks.”
“Well,” she rolls her eyes playfully as she shuffles in place, “I learned from the best.”
“I’ve just been thinking all day about how amazing my life has been since you came into it. You’ve made me a better man, and I’ll always be grateful for that.” I say, and she smiles with tears in her eyes, “You made me a husband again, and now you’ve made me a father. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me this opportunity.”
Y/N scoffs a little as she looks away and wipes the tears off her cheek, “John…”
“I mean it,” I reach over for her and hold her gaze, “I don’t thank you enough.”
“Because you don’t need to.” she whispers, and I shake my head. “Just waking up and seeing that you’re still there in the morning is enough. I mean sometimes Ro and I can be a handful.”
I shake my head as we both laugh, then I lean down to kiss her, “I’m not going anywhere. You and Ronan mean everything to me, and I mean it when I say I can’t function without you two. Those three days without my girls were rough. It gave me a glimpse as to what it would be like if I didn’t have you two in a way, and I hated it. I hated not feeling your body next to me in the night. I hate not waking up and bringing Ro into bed just to snuggle for a little bit. I hated not having you around.”
Y/N smiles as she looks up at me, then she cups my face and stand on her tiptoes to kiss me. I wrap my arms around her tight and deepen the kiss, then I kiss down her cheek to her neck before holding her for a few moments.
“Thank you for coming into my life and giving me all the things I never knew I wanted,” I whisper, and she tilts her head back and looks at me, “I love you more than I’ll ever able to express.”
“You’re so cute,” she whispers as she rubs her thumb against my cheek, then she leans up to kiss me, “I love you too.”
I hold her hand as I walk over to sit on the couch, and I smile when she sits next to me and puts her right leg over my lap, “It’s beautiful out here.”
“It’s a really nice night.” she nods, then she smiles at me, “Jimmy is going to start a bonfire in bit.”
“Sounds good.”
Y/N clears her throat a little as she shifts in place, then she looks at me and smiles softly, which causes me to grow concerned. Something is…off.
“What’s going on?” I ask, and she furrows her brow. “Come on, I know you. You got that little crinkle in your forehead. You’re thinking about something.”
“Uh, well, I…” she tilts her head back and groans as she looks at the sky, then she looks over at me, “I…god!”
I laugh as I hold her hand, “You can do it, baby.”
Y/N takes a deep breath and looks at me, “I think…I might be pregnant.”
I immediately sit up and look at her, “What?”
“Yeah,” she bites her lip nervously and nods, then she looks down at her hands and shrugs, “I haven’t gotten my period yet. It’s a few days late.”
I look down at my lap for a moment while we’re both silent, and I let everything run through my head.
We want more children but Ronan isn’t even a year old yet. We don’t want kids this close in age, and I know that we want to just stay the three of us for a little while longer before we add another member to the family. How the hell am I going to tell her that I don’t think we should have another baby yet?
I look up when I hear Y/N sniffle, and I move closer to her, “Don’t cry.”
“I just…I don’t want to be pregnant right now. I like just being a little family of three, and I’m just now starting to feel better about things. I’m finally feeling like I got this whole mom thing in the bag. I don’t want to be pregnant right now.”
“Yeah, of course.”
Y/N looks at me and shrugs, “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings--”
“Hey, I agree with you wholeheartedly.” I nod, and she smiles a little. “I love it just being the three of us. I love the way things are going. I don’t want another baby right now either. We’re still getting used to how things are with Ro.”
“Yeah,” she nods as I reach over to wipe the tear off her cheek. “I just finally got my body back. I finally feel like myself again. I’m not ready to share it again.”
I nod as I hold her gaze, “I know. I don’t blame you.”
“So…” she exhales as she looks at me, “Wanna come with me to take the test?”
I perk up as I look at her, “You bought some?”
“Before you got home the other day. I was too nervous to tell you.” she says, and I intertwine my fingers with hers and pull her up from the couch.
We hold hands as we walk inside, and I see Tess give her a wink. Of course Tess probably already knows what’s happening. I wouldn’t put it past these two. I’m glad that she had someone to talk to while I was gone.
Y/N heads downstairs and walks straight to her bag to get out the pregnancy tests, then she opens it while she walks to the bathroom. I let out a small laugh when she immediately sits on the toilet and sticks the test between her legs, then I lean against the door frame and look down to give her privacy.
“Okay,” she sighs as she flushes the toilet and washes her hands. She puts a piece of toilet paper over the test so neither of us peek, then she crosses her arms and looks at me. “I feel like I need to say this: I’ll be happy if we are.”
“I know,” I nod, then I gesture to myself, “Me too.”
Y/N holds my gaze, then she chuckles, “I just don’t want to be.”
“Yeah, same.” I laugh, reaching out for her hand, “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
A few moments pass as we stand there, and I smile when she looks up at me but I furrow my brow a little when I remember that she’s on birth control.
“I already know what you’re about to ask,” she laughs, and I start to smile, “I haven’t been taking it. It’s just so annoying to remember to take a pill, okay?”
I laugh as I lean over to kiss her, “I understand.”
“I have an appointment Monday, so I’m going to ask Doctor Mendez what I can I do instead because being a new mom causes me to forget to eat half the time, how am I meant to remember to take a pill?”
“Makes sense.” I nod, then I look over when the timer goes off. I walk over to wrap my arm around her shoulder and hold her close to my chest, and we both lean in to kiss one another before I pull the tissue from over the test. “Oh, thank god.”
Not pregnant.
Y/N leans against my chest and laughs, “I’ve never been more nervous.”
“Me too.” I laugh, then I lean back to look at her, “You’re sure you’re happy with those results?”
“Yes, very happy.”
I smile as I lean down to kiss her, “Because if you wanted a different result, I can always help with that.”
Y/N laughs as she tosses the test into the garbage, then she takes my hand and walks to Ronan’s room, quietly pushing the door open so we can check on her. We both tiptoe over to the crib and peek over to look at Ronan, and I wrap my arm around Y/N’s shoulder and kiss her head.
Ronan’s chunky little cheeks are a little red, so Y/N turns the little fan on to cool her down. I smile when she looks at me and wraps her arms around my waist, and we both look back at Ronan.
“I love her more than anything in this world, but I’m not ready to have another one yet.” she whispers, and I look at her, “I love our little world as three.”
“I do too,” I whisper back, then I lean down to kiss her, “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
Inhaling deeply, Y/N takes my hand and leads me to our bedroom where she sits down and pulls me next to her on the bed, “I want to have more kids. We’ve talked about this.”
“Why are you trying to justify your reaction like I’m upset?”
“I don’t want you to think I don’t want more kids.”
I tilt my head as I look at her, then I chuckle as I lean over to kiss her, “I know you want more. I do too! It’s just not time. I’m finally getting you back, I’m finally able to just have you to myself sometimes. You went through so much with this first pregnancy, and I don’t want you to go through all of that again unless you’re ready.”
Y/N smiles as she nods, “Yeah.”
“I love you, and I know you love being a mom,” I reach for her hand and press a kiss to it, “It’s just not time for another baby yet, and I’m completely fine with that. I think we’re both still trying to get used to how things work with a baby, and every month she’s learning something new and things are constantly changing. Plus with only one baby, I can get away with sneaking you off to the bedroom more often.”
“Yeah, very true.” she laughs, nodding her head as she leans over to kiss me.
I hold her gaze for a moment, then I nod to the bed and smirk, “Shall we?”
We both look over when we hear a knock on the glass sliding doors, and we wave at Jimmy. He slides the door open and sticks his head in as he waves.
“You guys coming for the bonfire?”
“Yeah, we’ll be right out.” Y/N says, then she looks at me and laughs, “Maybe we should wait for everyone to be asleep.”
I nod my head as I laugh, “Yeah.”
__
The sun has set, the kids are down, and now all the adults are outside for a bonfire. Bev never misses a moment to boast about her girls and tell embarrassing stories, and she’s making us all laugh telling us about the time Y/N got so sick at school that she needed to be picked up.
“Oh, she smelled horrid.” she says, and Y/N puts her head in her hands as she laughs. “The poor thing just couldn’t stop puking and then it was coming out of both ends. My poor baby was just a stinky crying mess when I picked her up. She ended up having a really bad stomach bug and was out of school for about two weeks. I remember when we needed to take a fecal sample to the hospital for testing, she nearly cried because she didn’t want the ‘boy doctor’ to look at it.”
“Hey! I was embarrassed!” Y/N says, and I chuckle as I look at her, “I was like…7.”
Bev smiles, “You just kept saying ‘no, he’s a boy doctor! Don’t give the boy doctor my poop!’ Everyone in the lobby was trying not to laugh, and the poor thing just cried. They ended up having a female nurse come take it to save the poor thing from the humiliation.”
Y/N laughs, “I’ll be sure to save Ro the childhood trauma and not pass her poop off to the boy doctor.”
I laugh as I rub her arm, then I lean down to kiss her head, “I know you have some embarrassing stories about Tess.”
“Hey!” Tess playfully yells and reaches over to shove my shoulder.
“Of course I do.” Bev laughs, then she shakes her head, “But I won’t do that to her.”
Y/N scoffs jokingly, “Oh, so you’re just going to tell my husband that I shit my pants one time but you’re not going to tell any of Tess’ embarrassing stories. Wow, I see who the favorite is.”
Tess puffs her chest up and flips her hair, then she nudges Y/N’s shoulder, “Nah, mom always said she never had a favorite.”
It’s actually really cool how Bev has always made it seem like Tess is her biological daughter. Y/N takes so much pride is having her as a big sister too. It’s cool that they accepted Tess into the family despite not being blood, and it was nice that I immediately felt at home with them too. They’ve always made me feel so comfortable, and I know it’s because Bev is just a really good woman. I’m glad that Y/N was brought up by her because she’s raised incredible daughters and now Y/N gets to help raise ours.
“Hey,” Jimmy comes out of the house and looks at us, “Ro-Ro is crying.”
Y/N laughs, “Ro-Ro?”
“Yeah, I mean, you got a nickname for Finny. I had to think of one too.” he laughs as he shrugs, “It was Ro-Ro or Rowey.”
“Well,” Y/N tilts her head, “I won’t lie, Rowey is kind of cute.”
I laugh as I get up with her, then we head downstairs to check on Ronan. As soon as we get to the door, Ronan reaches out for her mom and juts her bottom lip out.
“Oh, I know. Momma and daddy are here.” Y/N whispers as she picks her up and bounces her a little, and Ronan lays against her chest and sucks her thumb.
“I think she just needed her momma.” I whisper, then I grab Ronan’s blanket, “She can come upstairs with us.”
Y/N nods, “She’ll probably fall asleep again. She’s just been a little clingy.”
I wrap the blanket around Ronan as we head back outside, and I wait for them to sit down before I sit next to them and make sure they’re both warm. I wrap my arm around Y/N’s shoulder and rub her arm to warm her up, then I smile when she looks at me.
Ronan’s eyes are growing heavy as Y/N rubs her back and slowly rocks her from side to side, and I smile when I see Ronan’s eyes finally flutter shut as her thumb falls out of her mouth. I reach over and rub her back before leaning over to kiss her forehead, then I kiss Y/N and smile at her.
“We love you,” she whispers, and I smile again.
“I love you both.”
Holding tight to Y/N, I rub her arm and listen to the conversations being had, and I smile as I look around at everyone. My family. My perfect little family.
29 notes · View notes
sweepseven · 1 year
Text
Cirque du Soleil: O and KÀ viewing notes, post-pan edition!
First trip to Las Vegas since the pandemic and holy shit!! Was it a TIME. The When We Were Young festival was my excuse to be there, but I can’t set foot in that town without fitting in at least one Cirque show. I managed O and Ka and a last-second Atomic Saloon decision and oh my god did I have the visit of a lifetime. I’ll keep this post strictly to the circus shows, but like. Truly it was nuts. 
Anyway! O! I cannot overstate how happy I was to see this show again. This turned out to be my 50th ever Cirque performance and I couldn’t have asked for more. The detail most worth reporting is that according to a friend in the box office, whispers say the show is due for a refresh in January! It's been 24 years and O has never had a facelift! This is so so exciting! There's so much new technology they can integrate into the show, potentially new acts (though I can't imagine O without any one of its current acts), maybe even new music...I can't wait.
Richard MacDonald refreshed the sculpture gallery the very day I arrived in town and of course they're all incredible. He was there and apparently I just missed him when I went to pick up our tickets - too bad, I wanted to say hi!
Our performance was flawless, as always. One flyer fell during bateau but every other detail in the show went beautifully. I had three contortionists, and for some reason I am cursed to only ever see solo swinging trapeze but whatever, it was amazing regardless. The singers were going fucking hard, especially on Tzelma, and their little dance during Simcha was worth the cost of admission alone. I just love seeing them have fun. Crowd was solid, probably 75% full, which for O is more than plenty. There were nothing but empty rows behind us so my friends and I moved back a little ways so we could chat. I've never gotten to talk through an entire performance and it was such a treat hearing my friends react, ask questions, and just engage with the show with so much enthusiasm.
Last thing for O is that the day of the show I received a kind of "keep the magic going" email from Cirque offering up to 50% off LOVE and Ka, which is insane! Like, an almost alarmingly steep discount! And of course everyone likes to say both those shows are on the eternal chopping block, so I was a little 👀 about it. Still, hot tip for all: if you're seeing multiple Cirque shows in LV, maybe take the gamble on seats and wait until the day of your first, get that email, then book the others. I wouldn't expect to see an offer for a discount on O or Mystere, but worth a shot!
That said if anyone would like this offer, lmk and I'll gladly forward you the email. It's good until 12/31 and I won't be back in time to take advantage of it!
Next up was Atomic Saloon and I'll just say that show is an absolute fucking blast and if you can go, do. Fernando Miro is living his best life times a thousand. There's a dog. There's some of the most convincing physical acting I've ever ever seen, and I won't go into more detail for the sake of preserving the surprise for you. See this show. The end. Period.
So now Ka! By this point in the trip I am utterly fucking tapped. We had seen and done so so much between the shows, the festival, the partying, everything. I had the wildest nights I've ever had in that city and by that point it was all really taking its toll. So my attitude going in was very "Ka, I love you, but Jesus fucking Christ." Until then I thought it was impossible to feel disappointed that I had Cirque tickets. But I achieved it. Like that's how rough it was lol
That feeling lifted like a fog the minute the music started. I was so exhausted and out of it that I got an almost totally fresh perspective on a show I've seen now six times: it was just happening before my eyes and I was along for the ride. The boat rowed in and I was immediately transported. I forgot how much I missed this show, and watching each character go by as the stage rotated honestly felt like seeing old friends after years apart. And in a way that's exactly what happened! Watching the Chief Archer's Daughter put on her makeup so slowly and gently, the Firefly Boy sprinkling a handful of petals, the Jester eating his grapes, all of it felt as warm and welcoming as a long delayed embrace.
I'll be quick about acts for the most part: Pageant has some updated choreography that was very fun, Icarian games killed it, Storm isn't quite as fun to watch up close as it is from further back, the turtle scene was shorter and tighter (YAAAY), Pursuit was exact as tense and exciting as you could dream, batons remains perfect, idk why I can't care about that wheel of death act but I can't, and Battle was fine.
But listen!!! Kerren McKeeman as the Twin Sister is! A! Revelation! She's a phenomenal performer and utterly shines in the role. The straps act has some updates to highlight her strengths, and at one point she based the Firefly Boy in a lift and I lost my goddamn mind. Their chemistry together is unmatched, probably the best I've seen for this act. At the end she kisses him fully on the lips. Girl just goes for it. I wanted to cheer. I'll reiterate that I wanted to cheer, I who has spent thousands and thousands of words writing out the Firefly Boy entirely to make room for an impossible romance in goddamn clown fanfiction. Amazing act by amazing performers.
Other details of note: Forest has new bugs! The potato bug is BACK and badder than ever. Firefly Boy pets it like it's the family dog or something. Adorable. The snake was out tonight for some reasons, but there was a giant dragonfly-like one instead that I'd never seen before. There was also a green scorpion-ish thing that I don't think is new new but I don't recall from other viewings. The Counselor had new eyebrows - thicker and more sculpted. Both Firefly Boy and CAD had new, more extravagant costumes for the curtain call. Love Dance and Firefly Both have updated arrangements that I'm not sure I like yet: both give a more theatrical, sparkling impression but might not fit as well with the rest of the show's style. Def didn't hate either one. And did they turn up the volume on the seat speakers? Because holy shit were we rocking. The band killed it all night. The power of this show’s music cannot be overstated.
Okay, character details! Ie the most interesting part to me by a mile:
We had Tricia Woo as the Twin Sister and I completely adored her. She was so energetic and expressive and her chemistry with Peng was adorable. Specific shout out to her raw emotion as the ship sinks. She calls out the nanny's name over and over in this desperate scream, and never has that act had the impact on me that it did tonight. It made The Deep so much more powerful.
TS is visibly afraid of the Counselor's Son when he and his pops crash the function. In fact most everyone was, which was new and interesting to me. CAD isn't just perplexed by his pursuit of her, she's actively nervous of it and him. She turns from him in the Den, she startles when he touches her, and she cowers at his finale reappearance. It was a little chilling - you can’t help but wonder what he has done to get such a reputation.
Jason Biltz delivered yet another excellent turn as CS but it lacked the clarity I've seen in other performances. Tonight the character seemed to favor the path of least resistance and and tbh comes across as a master gaslighter: on multiple occasions he puts his hands up defensively as if asking "why are you so upset?" when he has clearly done something out of line, and he hunches his shoulders as though trying to appear smaller. He does appear to court CAD for 90% political reasons, but come Love Dance he looks truly heartbroken. And then later he doesn’t seem to give a remote shit that she just watched her father die right before her eyes, nor is he at all bothered by the way she's held with a literal knife to her throat. And if he’s always looking for an easy way out, why does he still protest the attack on the Imperialists at the beginning? What's the truth, Rensai, you goddamn snake??
Despite somewhat hazy motivations, Jason plays this bastard as ruthlessly, brutally passionate. It's honestly remarkable. His pride at his every entrance, the deliberate dramatics of his firepowder presentation, his restless and energetic pacing during the wheel of death’s construction, all of it makes him look like the real powder keg about to explode. And when that's exactly what happens, you can't help but feel like you should have seen it coming. I stand by my claim that almost every other singular character in this show could be written out except him: he is essential to the narrative and theme.
The first archer to try to present CAD with a gift was a WOMAN. It was something new, some weapon or something I don't know the name of. Kind of a weighted chain that she whipped around like water meteors. Regardless: BI CAD???? I lost it.
If anyone ever asks you to describe non-sexual human intimacy, show them Shadowplay. It is just desperately tender. The Court Jester tends to the Twin Brother's hand with such delicacy - he removes the bandage, of course, but then has TB hold his palms up so the jester can smooth them with his own. He passes the bandage gently over them, and the gesture is miniscule but it feels like something out of a broader practice. A way to prep TB for the shadow puppets to come while also guiding him away from the tragedy of what they just escaped and into this deliberate moment of peace and rest.
My hasty post-show notes say "TS and FB FUCK but TB and CAD are taking it slow :)" and I'm still kind of laughing about it. There's a distinct difference in the way the twins approach each of their new relationships. TS and Firefly Boy are magnetic and give the immediate impression that they can't keep their hands off each other. Meanwhile TB and CAD are very reserved - more whispers in ears, blushes, and hesitation to hold hands. It's an adorable contrast.
Noriko continues to reign supreme. She gave the most adorable, startled little sound when TB kissed her. 
Peng for president. He’s the best. He’s the best. He. 
And to cap it all off, I swear that theater was 80-90% full. Better than I’ve ever ever seen it. I was thrilled for the artists to get the recognition they deserve in a space so massive. I hope they felt the energy because what they gave to us that night was utterly electric.
All in all a wholly epic weekend. And O got to be my 50th! See ya at 100, CdS. Feeling very lucky, grateful, and verrrry tired. Back in LV in January for Mystere and hopefully LOVE. 💛💚
10 notes · View notes
Text
i just watched soul and felt an overwhelming urge to go out and live but then i remembered it's almost midnight here and we're in the middle of a pandemic
7 notes · View notes
Text
popcorn & pronouns
Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: Janus, Remus, Roman Rating: Teen & up Relationships: Dukeceit, Creativitwins  Warnings: Not much to warn for in this one. Language, a little bit of suggestiveness, vague non-detailed descriptions of a horror movie.  Word count: 3402
Read on AO3!
My writing masterpost
Starlight Universe masterpost
Dukeceit Week 2021 start - previous - here - next - masterpost
Summary: A movie night date leads to an important conversation. Already being t4t makes it a lot easier. Or, in Remus's own words, “This is just, like, going to be a week of people coming out to me, I guess. Huh.”
Notes: Day 6 of Dukeceit Week 2021! Almost there! @dukeceitweek Takes place in my Starlight Universe, where each piece can be read without any context. Takes place 9 months after college; at the start of the story, Janus uses only they/them pronouns. 
-- 
“Ooh, popcorn! Can I have some?” Roman popped his head into the kitchen of the apartment he, Remus, and Logan had shared in the nine or so months since they had all graduated college.
“No, Jan and I are having a date in twenty minutes,” Remus said, waving Roman off without looking away from the air popper.
“Okay, I don’t see how that’s relevant to my question.” Roman pushed himself to sit on the counter by the sink. “I mean, that’s really cute, I hope you have fun. But can I have some popcorn?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Make your own when I’m done.”
“But you make it better!” Roman pouted overdramatically.
Remus raised an eyebrow. “All I do is plug in the machine?”
“Right, which is better than me doing it.” Roman grinned at them. “Less work for me.”
“Hey!” Remus swatted his arm. “The transphobia, honestly—”
“Well, if you making it for me is transphobic to you, then you not making it for me is—” Roman broke off quite suddenly, his expression undergoing several shifts very fast that Remus could not make sense of. Which was… unusual, to say the least. Roman was normally the one person they could always count on understanding. They didn’t like this new development one bit.
“Ro?”
“Iiiiiit’s… queerphobic to me,” Roman said at last, a worried pinch to his eyebrows. He laughed, and it almost didn’t sound forced. “So we’re at a tie, so you should just make me popcorn.”
“First of all, I’m queer too, make your own damn popcorn. Second—” Remus turned away from the popcorn machine and gave Roman his full attention, leaning back against the kitchen island and tilting his head to the side. “Do you wanna talk about whatever the fuck that was?” So far as Remus knew, Roman was bi; that was the label he’d been using for years and years, so long that it practically felt like forever. Since almost the very beginning of high school. Since before Remus had questioned their gender, even. Only last week, he’d called the light switch biphobic without hesitation when it broke.
Whatever had happened to make him so very deliberately not call himself bi just now, it was new.
Roman’s expression closed up very fast indeed, but not before Remus caught a flash of something he was almost certain was fear. “No.”
“You know it’s okay to question, right?” Remus inquired awkwardly. “No matter what specifically, and no matter what the outcome is? Yeah?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You know I’d still love you no matter what, right? Even if you were, like, a straight man—like, I would make so many jokes about not agreeing with your lifestyle, but—Ro, you know everything is always gonna be okay, right?”
Roman glared at him. “Remus, I don’t want to talk about it.” He wrinkled his nose. “And I’m definitely not straight.”
Remus blinked and raised their hands. “Alright. I didn’t mean literally straight, I just meant—you could be literally whatever, and it would be cool. That was—like—the most extreme example I could think of, you know?”
Roman let out a slight huff of laughter. “Thanks,” he said reluctantly after a pause. “It’s nothing, though.”
“Bullshit,” Remus said immediately.
“It—” Roman swallowed. “I need it to be nothing, okay?”
“If anyone’s making you feel shitty, I’ll beat them up,” Remus said immediately. “Even if it’s Patton. Just drop the names. I’ll do it. I’ll—”
“Remus, it’s fine. I want to stop fucking talking about it now!” Roman snapped.
Remus hesitated, fumbling for what to do or say next, everything about the conversation feeling just a little wrong and sideways.
Roman sighed. “Sorry.” He pushed off the counter, went to the fridge, and stared into it for a solid thirty seconds, then took a cheese stick out of the door. “I’ll make my own popcorn later,” he mumbled and retreated back to his room.
“Damn, alright,” Remus said to the empty room. “Be like that, I guess.” They flung their hands into the air and went to get the butter they’d been melting in the microwave before Roman’s appearance.
Roman would talk to them about it, whatever it was, eventually. He always did. And whatever was bugging him, Remus would figure out a way to bug it back until it stopped and Roman was all happy and bubbly again. Because that was what Remus always did. It would be fine. It was just a waiting game.
Remus sighed. He always hated waiting.
***
“Mmkay,” Remus said, when Janus had arrived, and they had worked together to move the TV out of the living room and into Remus’s room, and they had settled in on Remus’s bed—Remus sitting up against the headboard and Janus half-laying in Remus’s lap with their long thin legs stretched out along the bed and their head on his chest—and the popcorn had been set beside them where they could both reach it, and the blanket nest had been fluffed once more. “What shall we watch?”
Janus was silent for a long moment. Actually, come to think of it, they had been quiet since they’d arrived at the apartment—even more quiet than usual. But Remus was almost certain they weren’t nonverbal, seeing as they had exchanged a few fond words with him. It just hadn’t been very many words.
“Janny, baby?” Remus leaned forward, over their shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of their face.
Janus had their fingers knotted in the blanket that was spread over their lap, fidgeting with it anxiously, a thinking-hard expression on their face.
“Baby?” Remus curled one hand lightly around theirs. “You good?”
“Choices are too hard right now,” Janus said at last.
“Okay, that’s okay. Do you know what you need?”
“I want to watch a movie.” Janus frowned. “I just can’t choose.”
“Gotcha. No problem.” Remus pressed a kiss to their cheek. “I’m really good at choosing.” He threaded his fingers through Janus’s long hair, scratching soothingly at their scalp in just the way he knew they liked, and pulled up the library of movies, switching from Roman’s profile to his own.
“How’s some really cheesy horrible horror film we can make fun of sound?” he asked, scrolling with the remote and still playing with Janus’s hair with his other hand. “I know we have a bunch of those, I loved ’em when we were kids and I think they’re funny.”
“That sounds fine.” Janus nodded and relaxed a little further against Remus.
“Good.” He kissed the top of their head. “Do you need anything else?”
Janus shook their head. “I’ve just been kind of stressed lately. Work’s been shit, and all that. It’s fine. I just want to cuddle and things.”
“Ooh, ‘and things,’ I like the sound of that,” Remus teased, sliding his hand gently to their chin and drawing them to twist around far enough that he could kiss them soft and slow.
“I didn’t say what kinds of things,” Janus said innocently, their eyes still closed and so close to Remus that their lips brushed against his as they spoke. “Perhaps I could be persuaded later.”
“I’ll be sure to prepare my best arguments,” Remus said, leaning slightly up to kiss their forehead and then back down to their lips for another lazy kiss, taking his time and exploring Janus’s mouth until they sighed and melted against him.
“A compelling preview,” they murmured, their eyes still closed and the slightest smile curling at their lips.
Remus meant to make some kind of witty quip in return, really he did, but all that came out of his mouth was a quiet, awed, “Holy fuck, you’re so beautiful, Jan.”
Janus’s eyes opened and met his for a moment, soft and vulnerable, before they turned and hid their face in his neck. “Love you,” they whispered against his skin.
“Mm, I love you too,” Remus said happily, wrapping his arms securely around Janus and kissing the top of their head. “Love your pretty eyes and skin and hair and body, love how clever you are, love your scary goth clothes, love your snark, love your stims, love you—”
Janus whined wordlessly into his neck, pressing kisses to it and fisting their hands in the front of his shirt.
Remus chuckled, taking a handful of their hair and gently tugging until they looked up at him once more. “Do you want to watch a movie at all, or do you just wanna make out? Cause I’d be good with either, but if you wanna do a movie, we should get on that before we’re too distracted.”
“Oh.” Janus leaned their head back a little until it was resting against Remus’s hand. “Not that I don’t want to make out, but—”
“Nah, I gotcha. Gotta at least get through the popcorn, am I right?” Remus cast about for the remote, lost in the blanket pile, as Janus shifted about until they faced the television again.
“There it is!” Remus snatched the remote up, clicking through the library on the television until he saw the particular film he was thinking of and pulled it up. “This look good?”
“‘When moving into their new house, little do our protagonists know it is haunted by a demonic serial killer. Will they get out in time? Or will they be his next victims?’” Janus read the summary aloud. “Sounds absolutely thrilling. Extremely original. Love the bad Photoshop on the cover. I’m sure the acting will be of the highest quality.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s so shitty, I love it. So many cheesy effects and fake blood, it’s the actual stupidest shit,” Remus assured them. “I love it, though. Went as the demon thing for Halloween when I was nine. Nobody fucking knew what I was, but I had the time of my life. And got fake blood on Roman when he wasn’t looking. It was great.”
Janus chuckled, reaching up to brush their fingertips against Remus’s cheek. “Well, with such a glowing review from someone so attractive, how can I resist?” they said fondly.
“That’s the spirit!” Remus hit play.
Remus had watched this particular movie more times than they could count over the course of their childhood. He peppered commentary throughout the film:
“This is my favorite part, if you pay attention you can see her real fingertips holding onto the fake hand she’s about to get chopped off!”
“There’s a jumpscare in this scene, I know you hate those—okay, hit the skip-ten-seconds button in three, two, there. Perfect. Dumbass demon movie can’t even trust itself to be creepy without cheap scares.”
“Look, I know the mom is supposed to have some kind of hot blonde thing going on for the horny straight men in the audience, but she’s got nothing on you.”
“For some reason they made a director’s commentary and it actually includes the fake blood recipe they used, I’ll show you sometime!”
Janus, in turn, provided brilliant, extremely snarky roasts, mostly of either the actors’ absolute lack of skill or the gaping plot holes:
“Oh, yes, going alone to the attic at midnight without so much as a candle is a fantastic idea, nothing bad could possibly happen in this scene.”
“Listen, I can excuse the children because they’re about eight years old, but do you think this man has ever even heard of acting? Or even, like, speaking in a non-monotone?”
“I am truly fascinated by the special effects department’s understanding of human anatomy.”
“So, the demon feeds on misery? Why hasn’t it taken up residence in a large office building? I mean, come on, hundreds of souls in an environment designed to grind out constant levels of misery? It’s perfect. The poor thing must be starving out here in the two-point-five-kids-and-a-dog suburbs, every meal it gets is tiny. I would be so much better at its job than it is.”
At last the credits rolled.
“Wanna see pictures of the costume I made?” Remus asked.
“Sure.” Janus sounded amused.
“Lemme just—” Remus scrolled through their camera roll for a minute. “Oh, here they are.” They displayed their phone to Janus; tiny nine-year-old Remus, who sported long tangled brown hair in two ponytails, was draped in a black curtain, donated by his great-aunt, that he had very enthusiastically taken a pair of scissors to to create a tattered effect; the curtain was splattered with bright red goo, and tiny Remus had a pair of plastic knives in his hands, which were blurry in almost every photo because they’d hardly stopped making stabbing motions all evening. To their right, their little sister Gabby, who’d been six at the time, was dressed as Elastigirl and making a punching motion; to their right, Roman—who had already been a full three inches taller than Remus, even at nine—was wearing a Belle dress with a poofy skirt and a sword strapped around his waist and a huge smile that was missing one front tooth.
Remus swiped through the photos; a delightful scene unfolded, as tiny Remus posed for a few pictures, then in one was blurrily turning towards Roman, then dumping something on him, then Roman was screaming and Remus was laughing as red goo dripped down the poofy yellow skirt; Gabby watched with both hands clapped over her mouth, eyes huge.
“You two really have not changed at all, have you?” Janus asked, stifling laughter.
“Absolutely not,” Remus agreed with an answering laugh. “I think the most that either of us ever changed was when I chopped off all that hair and dyed it green.”
“When was that?” Janus asked.
“Sophomore year of high school. I did not have permission to chop it all off, but I did get permission to dye it afterwards, so that was pretty sick.”
“And that didn’t go against dress code?” Janus inquired.
“No, actually. Not sure how. But I bet my parents would’ve kicked up a big stink about it if the school tried and made me change it; they were always super big on self expression and shit.” Remus gestured towards the picture, indicating tiny Roman in his princess dress. “We always got to wear whatever we wanted, and shit like that. It was nice. Made gender shit way easier when that became a thing for me, you know?”
“It sounds nice,” Janus said softly. “I’m happy you had that.”
Remus nodded and pressed a kiss to their forehead, reaching for a handful of the popcorn dregs in the bottom of the bowl.
Janus shifted in their arms, rolling over to face Remus and propping themself up on their elbows. “Actually,” they began.
Something on their face told Remus that whatever this new topic of conversation was, it was important. He swallowed the half-chewed popcorn in his mouth. “Yeah, baby?”
“Speaking of gender.” Janus picked at the edge of the blanket.
“I love speaking of that, go on.” Remus tousled Janus’s hair fondly.
Janus took a deep breath, staring at the blanket in their hands. “I want to start using he pronouns again. In addition to my regular ones. Or.” They wrinkled their nose. “My current ones, I guess. So, he/they.”
“That’s great, he/they pronouns are very sexy,” Remus said at once.
Janus laughed, looking up at him at last. “That’s true, you are the sexiest person I know,” he said fondly. A shadow passed over his features. “But,” he went on slowly, chewing on the inside of their lip and picking at the blanket once more.
“Yeah?” Remus encouraged.
“I really don’t like the idea of telling anyone else about that.” Janus grimaced. “I keep worrying I’ll get asked stupid questions about ‘oh, so are you a man again now?’ when—like—no, and I never was one in the first place. So.”
“Oh, that sounds gross,” Remus agreed at once. “I can see why you’d be worried about that.”
Janus nodded. “I just—I don’t want to explain. And I don’t want people to ask questions. And they might. And I just—I don't want any of it. I want to skip to the part where they know and it’s all how I want it to be.”
“That’s reasonable,” Remus agreed. “But, I mean, if they can get me using he/they pronouns and being nonbinary, they had better fucking wrap their minds around the concept of you doing it too. Yeah? Or I’ll make ’em. Violently, if you want.”
Janus snorted. “I appreciate the offer, darling.” They reached up and touched his cheek. “I… don’t know if I want to tell anyone else yet. But I did want to tell you.”
“You got it, cutie.” Remus booped Janus’s nose once. “Just let me know if anything changes. I’ll punch people for you. Anytime. They don’t even have to have done anything. Just point me at them and consider it done.”
Janus did laugh at that, outright, scrunching up his face and burying it in Remus’s chest. “I should not be this into you offering to punch people for me,” he said wryly.
Remus grinned and flipped their hair. “Nah, I think it’s definitely very sexy of me and should absolutely turn you on.”
Janus smacked Remus’s arm. “I did not say that!”
“You implied it.”
“Not… necessarily. That was one possible interpretation—”
“Oh, right, I see, mmhm, very interesting.”
They smacked his arm again. “You’re teasing me.”
“Only a little bit. You’re so pretty when you get all flustered.” Remus bent their head at a somewhat awkward angle to kiss Janus’s lips gently. “Are there any new words you want me to use, by the way?” they asked. “Besides updating pronouns?”
Janus tilted his head to the side, considering. “I think… I still like all the sorts of things you call me already. Pretty, and partner, and—and baby, and so on.”
Remus smirked. “That’s good, I like calling you baby.”
“Oh my god, shut up.” Janus hid their face in their hands.
“Why, baby?” Remus asked innocently.
Janus made a strangled noise, and after a pause carried on. “I do think I wouldn’t mind adding a little bit of… masc terminology? I guess? If that makes sense? Adding that into the mix. Not all the time, and not as much as the things you already call me, but… just a bit would be nice.”
“Gotcha.” Remus nodded. “I can do that. So, like, my baby is very pretty and handsome?”
Janus’s cheeks went bright red in an instant, and he hid his face in Remus’s chest again, letting out a tiny wordless scream. “Yes. That. That—that’s nice,” they managed after a pause, sounding almost entirely composed.
Remus chuckled and ran their fingers through Janus’s hair. “Good to know,” he said teasingly. “I will definitely keep this in mind.”
“Oh my god,” Janus mumbled. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Absolutely, but only in a sexy way of making you happy.” Remus kissed the top of their head. “This is just, like, going to be a week of people coming out to me, I guess,” they mused. “Huh.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, something’s clearly eating at someone else we know, and I think they’re going to tell me about whatever it is within the week. That’s all. It was just funny timing.” Remus kissed the top of Janus’s head again. “So, the movie’s over,” they noted, which, sure, was a blatant and deliberate change of subject, but he felt this was justified, both for avoiding-speculating-about-Roman’s-personal-information purposes and, more importantly, for fun-after-movie-things purposes.
“That it is,” Janus said, a particular innocent tone entering their voice. Excellent, he was of a similar mind to Remus, then.
Remus grinned and drew them up for a kiss. “So, what does the very pretty and handsome and lovely human in my arms want to do now?” he inquired.
Janus made another small, wordless, flustered noise and promptly dragged Remus into another kiss. “You can’t just say things like that!”
“What, about how you’re the loveliest—prettiest—sexiest—” Remus pressed tiny kisses to Janus’s lips with each word, until at last they caught his lips with their own in a proper kiss to shut him up. “Pretty sure I can say it, actually,” Remus murmured against his lips. “Cause it’s true.”
“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Janus said, sounding very pleased indeed, and kissed them again.
--
Taglist (ask to be added/removed!): @theimprobabledreamersworld @peruviandesertfox
80 notes · View notes
Text
A/n: sorry this took a little longer than usual, I had a huge project for one of my classes that was the only thing on my mind for like a week. Here is part 2 to the charlie weasley story I made a while ago. Hope you enjoy!
**Flash forwards 7 months to the week before valentines day**
Love was thick in the air at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry the week before valentines day, not only were people excited to spend the day with their loved ones, but the big school dance was atop everyone's minds.
It was no different for Y/N Y/L/N and Charlie Weasley. The couple was now into their 7th month of dating and they were absolutely head over heels for each other, let alone in the time of valentines day.
In the 7 months they've been together, they of course got to all the things couples do. Sneaking around at 2am, stealing kisses in the hallways between classes, driving their friends up a wall because they couldn't stop fawning over each other, you name it.
Their friend sof course, were beyond happy for them, seeing as they were placing bets on if this year would finally be the year they go together, (of course, Barnaby had lost.)
Now coming up on valentines day, you could guess they already had a date planned.
"Y/n?" Charlie said one afternoon on their way to charms class.
"Yes charlie?" She said with the biggest grin on her face.
"I was just wondering what color my tie should be so it can match your dress at the dance." He said with that mischievous smirk.
"Hmm, I didn't know i was going to the dance, no one has asked me yet." She said looking around for someone who wasn't there.
"Ahh, fantastic! Then there won't be any competition." Charlie said as he magically pulled flowers from behind his back. "Y/n y/l/n, would you do my the honors and go to the valentines day dance with me?" He bent down as if he was curtsying.
"Why yes charlie weasley, I would love to." He stands up and kisses her cheek just as they hear a round of applause. Both turning find their friends, Penny, Rowan, Ben and Andre standing down the corridor from them.
"Congrats guys, now come on, we don't want to be late." Rowan exclaims. The couple laughs and pecks each other's lips, heading off in the direction of their class.
As y/n sits down next to her best friend Rowan, she feels a nudge in her ribs. "What Rowan?"
"Will you go to hogsmeade with me Penny, and tonks later? I'm pretty sure we're going to buy dresses. It could be a fun girls day."
"Of course Rowan, I would love to." She says with a huge grin on her face. She turns to charlie, who is talking with Ben.
"Well charlie, I known dragons are fascinating to you, but to me, I can't imagine a more terrifying things." She laughs interrupting their conversation.
"Well ben, I promise you charlie would not let one harm you." She turns towards charlie. "Hey im gonna go to hogsmeade with the girls tomorrow." He smiles
"Okay, I'll miss you." She laughs.
"Charlie ill be gone for a few hours. You'll be fine." He sighs but agrees.
The next day, y/n, tonks, Penny, and Rowan are making their way down to the village, intending on heading to the dress shop, when a snowball comes flying at tonks head. Everyone stops and turns to see Andre, Ben, Barnaby and Bill picking up snow.
The girls laugh it off and pick snow up as well, engaging in a snowball fight that the girls are clearly winning. Y/n throws one directly and Barnabys head which hits him dead in the face signaling the defeat of the boys with a tremendous roar of laughter.
As the girls say goodbye to the boys and make their way into the dress shop, to the dislike of the owner since they were wet from the snow, they are all having great times.
"I don't think I've ever seen Barnaby that shocked since when you hit him y/n." Tonks say with a roar of laughter. She laughs.
"Yeah, he didn't know what was coming ro him." They all laugh together.
"Hello ladies, what are we shopping for today?" The owner comes over and looks at the group of girls.
"Well, we would all like to purchase dresses for an upcoming ball, preferably color coordinated, although maybe not y/n since she of course has to match with her date." Penny explains with a smirk in y/n's direction.
"I see, well what colors would you like?" The women asks the girls.
"Well for me, I think red would be the best option, since charlies favorite color is red. Do you have a burgundy or wine color dress?" Y/n finishes as the owner smiles and goes to the back to look.
"Of course, charlie would love to see you in burgundy, although, I bet he already has seen more than that." Penny says with a huge smirk on her face. She of course is talking about the 2am adventure y/n and charlie took an abandoned corridor, and did some things... (ill stop there so not every single piece of mine is smut;)
Y/ns cheeks turn a deep shade of red as the owner comes back with multiple dresses to try on. A few hours later, the girls were satisfied with their purchases, y/n choosing a beautiful burgundy dress that extenuated her figure nicely, and her friends with blue dresses that all looked amazing on them.
When they got back to the castle, they went to their common rooms and decided to get some rest, as it was quite late, considering they took forever to try on dresses.
The next morning, y/n met charlie in the common room and they walked to breakfast together.
"So, you never answered my question a couple days ago." Charlie started. "What color tie shall I be wearing?" He said with a grin.
Y/n laughed at that. "I won't reveal too much, but I would go with a dark red to match my drop dead gorgeous dress." He laughed
"Ooh I can't wait." They held as hands as they walked into breakfast.
The morning of the dance was filled with sunshine through y/n's window. It was a Saturday and she was going to get ready with her friends for the ball the evening.
She started the day by getting breakfast and listening to her favorite songs. By nightfall, she was with all her friends, getting ready to have charlie drooling over her.
"Y/n, show us your beautiful dress." She went into the changing room and got on her dress, which looked amazing with her curled hair. She walked out and everyone turned to her.
"Holy shit y/n/n, you look amazing." She giggled, "thanks Rowan. Come on everyone get dressed so we can go to this thing." Within an hour everyone was making their way downstairs at 7:30pm as the dance started at 8pm.
When all the girls were downstairs at the entrance of the ball, y/n got nervous.
"Y/n, what's wrong?" Rowan asked her best friend as she had yet to enter the hall.
"I don't know Rowan, i just, what if charlie doesn't like it? What if I fall on my face like an idiot, what if-"
"Hey, hey, hey, just take a deep breathe, okay? Girl you look so beautiful you don't even know, charlie is so in love with you that he is going to think you look good no matter what. You're beautiful and you don't need to stress like this. Okay? Come on." Y/n smiled at her.
"Thanks Rowan, you're the best friend ever." They hugged and y/n entered the hall, all eyes turning towards her and Rowan. Charlies mouth dropped open and bill had to quickly shut if for him. Y/n giggled at that as she made her way over to him.
"Y/n, you look, amazing." Charlie smiled. "Thank you, you don't look too bad yourself red." He offered you his arm and you took it. Walking into the dance with Charlie, you felt such euphoria, you were with all of your friends and your boyfriend, it was the perfect night.
"Y/n, may I have this dance?" Charlie asked, standing from the table where his friends sat.
"Ah, such a gentleman. Of course charlie." She smiled at her friends as they waved.
As the couple took their place on the dance floor, they felt so in love with each other.
"You look so beautiful tonight y/n, I love this dress on you." She giggled.
"Thank you charlie, you look dashing as well." She said as she leaned in to kiss him, which he reciprocated almost immediately.
"Wow, y/n, that was,"
"Amazing." The two moved closer to each other as they danced, her head on his shoulder.
"I love you y/n." She froze in her place. He felt it and pulled away. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, we're so young and i-" he didn't get to finish as she pulled him for a kiss.
"Its okay charlie, I love you too." He smiled as they continued dancing, into the most perfect night ever.
A/n: okay, this one is not as good as the first, sorry! But I hope you liked it, I think it's cute. Warning, next chapter there will be ANGST!heart break and sadness lies ahead lol. Please let me know what you thinked of this chapter, it means a lot to me <3
76 notes · View notes
lovingthereign25 · 4 years
Text
The Chase
Part 6
2015
You were having a rare day out with some of the girls. As much as you loved being a mommy and being home with Aaliyah you missed your friends too.
So you, Nikki, Trin,and Brie went out for lunch and a wine tasting.
“How's mom life treating you?” Brie asks
“ It's great. I love it, but i miss being in the ring” you say
“ So make a come back, Aaliyah is one now bring her along” Nikki smiles.
“So funny you said that, Stephanie asked me about that at the last pay per view” you say
“And..what did you say?” Trin asks
“I said i would talk to Roman about it see where it goes from there...but that's gonna have to wait” you say
“Why?, girl wrestling is your passion, you're one of not the best to do this.” Nikki says.
“Nikki, some people dont wanna raise a baby on the road” Brie rolls her eyes at her sister.
“ Well that and I'm pregnant” you smile
“What?!?” Trin says almost spitting her drink out.
“ Yeah, I'm almost 8 weeks” you say.
“Damn girl, you and Roman doing it like bunnies huh?” Nikki laughs.
“Let's just say his days off arent days off at all” you smirk
“ oooh, get it girl” Trin laughs
“She does apparently,” Brie laughs.
*Present Day*
Roman was sitting in his as he called it “Big Dog Den” watching ESPN the kids were fast asleep. You make you way over to where he was seating and slowly start rubbing his shoulders.
“Jesus, your hands are like magic” he says resting his head on the cushion behind him.
“So tense big daddy” you say
“Just stressed about the big match  coming up” he shrugs
“Well in that case you know what works better with stress than these magic hands?” You ask
“What's that?” He asks
“My mouth” you whisper, sending chills down Roman neck.
You walk around the small couch so you are now standing in front of Roman. He was looking up at you with lustful eyes as you spread his knees apart, sliding a hand up his basketball shorts knowing very well your husband of nearly 8 years doesn't like wearing underwear. You run your hand along his huge length feeling him harden at your touch, then move to his balls giving them a little attention before pulling his shorts to his ankles.
“Y/n what if one of the kids wakes up?” He asks his breath hitching.
“Ro, all five of them are knocked the hell out, now shut up and let me have my way with you” you smile before going right to work on his now very hard member.
“Damn, baby, I could watch you suck me off all night” he moans.
You continue to suck him off letting him go deeper and deeper until he met the back of your throat
“Shit Y/n I'm almost there” he grunts
You stop without warning causing Roman you groan at the loss of you.
“What the hell?” He asks.
You don't say anything instead you remove your jean shorts and panties tossing them aside. You straddle Roman feeling him just outside your entrance.
“Let me fuck you Daddy” you say as you feel him slide into you. Taking a second to adjust to waste no time getting a rhythm going making Roman’s eyes roll back.
“Fuck Y/n. Shit i love when you wanna ride it” he moans
“Ahh Ro! You like it baby?” You moan
“Hell yeah” he says squeezing your ass.
“Fuck Daddy i love when you grab my ass” you let out
“Y/n I'm gonna explode” he grunts
“Yeah daddy, give me every last drop of your delicious cum” you moan as you continue to ride him.
“Y/n…” Roman moans filling you up.
“Holy shit..I’m cumming” you almost scream.
“I love you so much” he laughs
“I love you too baby” you smile kissing him.”Round 2 upstairs?” You smirk
“I'll race you, the loser gets the “ no touching” punishment” he smiles.
“ You're on” you say jumping off his lap getting a head start.
*November 2015*
The last couple months  have been hard on you and Roman. He was once again in the title picture which was awesome but it also caused him to be extremely stressed out and grumpy. All the two of you did was argue. It was non-stop whether he was home or on the road it was a constant ongoing argument about everything. After Thanksgiving you sat down and talked about your relationship coming to the agreement to take some time apart. Not a divorce but more of a tiny separation. A break if you will.
*March 1st 2016*
You were sitting at home with Aaliyah,  Roman was out even though you two were still on the little break. He had been staying at the house knowing your due date was 2 days away.  You felt a sharp pain. Then a few more every 20 minutes or so. You call your mom explaining the sharp pains she says it's probably Braxton Hicks but since you're so close to your due date She’ll  take you to the hospital just to be safe.
You try to call Roman but get no answer which was strange. So you decide to call Patricia. Asking her to watch Aaliyah.
“ Of course honey, I'll be right over and I'll try to get a hold of my son for you, you just relax” she says
“ okay, thanks momma” you smile.
Moments later both Patricia and your mom were at your house. You grabbed your hospital bag just in case, kissed and hugged Aaliyah tight. And headed to the hospital.
At the hospital they admit you stating it was in fact labor. You were in a room with your mom squeezing her hand as a contraction washed over you.
“Fuck these are 100 times worse than with Aaliyah” you yell “ i cant do this” you cry
“Yes you can! You're so strong my sweet girl. You got this” you mom says kissing your head.
“ She's right. You're the strongest woman I know, and I'm right here with you” Roman says, rushing to your side taking your other hand.
“Roman, I'm so happy you're here” you say.
After another 30 minutes your second child was born. Another beautiful baby girl. Briana Christina Reigns.To say she was Roman’s twin would be an understatement she looked exactly like her daddy. She was perfect just like her two older sisters. Who were in the waiting room ready to meet her. Roman brought Jojo and Aaliyah in to meet their sister.
“Okay guys here she is. Your baby sister Briana.” Roman smiles.
“She's so cute! Can I hold her daddy?” Jojo asks
“Of course” you smile handing Briana to Roman as he walks over to the chair with Jojo handing her the baby gently.
After the girls left you and Roman sat alone with your new daughter.
“She's so perfect” he says
“ I know right? God she looks just like you” you smile leaning your head on his shoulder.
“She has your lips though” he smiles
“I love you” you say
“ I love you” he says
“No Roman i love you, let's stop this foolishness and be a family” you say
“I thought you never say that...I need my wife back” he winks.
“As much as i could use my husband too.... Doctor’s order is 4-6 weeks, remember?” You laugh.
60 notes · View notes
ben-the-hyena · 4 years
Text
Yes Seladon's redemption went too fast and I want it to be developped and see people still don't trust her and her to become better and better in season 2, I would have preferred if it had taken more time for her and Brea to reconciliate
However I protest against those who say them reconciliating would have never happened
Yes they were in rivalry. Yes there was animosity between them ro the point of Seladon liking to see her punished, them accusing each other in front of the mother, them roasting each other and them getting offended when people compare one to another
But not only most of those sound like most sibling rivalry most siblings have (often unless your sibling is truely sad or in danger you keep being bored and annoyed at their sole presence you both love them and hate them ; Tavra who almost never argue with them actually almost sounds idealistic for me a big sister lol) mixed up with a cold mother's influence and Seladon's insecurities, one can argue that perhaps they weren't always like that. Maybe when Brea was younger (what is she in human years ? 18 ?) she was more respectful of traditions because she had less spirit so Seladon didn't get annoyed at her the same way, and maybe Mayrin started to be strict with Seladon only when she was starting to be a teen or a woman and nothing was the same again. Their sister relationship could have been put on hold to be "princess" relationship. And since they had different social and political opinions, that relationship was going down hill
And there was care even before Seladon's redemption. The famous "at least spare my sisters !" from Seladon aside, Seladon also looked and sounded alarmed when Brea was with Lore. When she ordered her to get away from that "monster" who says "heresy", it didn't sound that commanding or angry but more like if she were scared for her like "HOLY SHIT BREA GET AWAY FROM THAT POOL OF SHARKS !!!"
And Brea herself showed she did care for her the whole time even if she were angry and annoyed at her. Her telling her she didn't care about Mayrin but about her crown was probably not sincere but a way to anger and trigger her more into a fight, low but humane. On the contrary, speaking of Lore, she immediatly told Lore to leave her alone and went in between her and him while he was starting to get crazy (and back then she didn't know if he could be stopped on time when starting something, after all she wasn't sure yet if he was alive or a machine) towards Seladon crying "NO SHE'S MY SISTER SHE'S MY SISTER !" and when Seladon sent her with the Paladins she called for her confused and genuinely surprised and betrayed "you're my sister !..." and then got heart broken when she answered she was no longer. And yet she was aware she was angry and blinded. Because except where she calls her out on her bullshit in the lab because she snapped at her accusations and was tired and tried to open her eyes with irritation, she never acted like "my sister is evil and on their side ! She's as much a Skeksis as them !" No. It could have been so if they had always been in a bad relationship that would have been yet another proof. But she keeps wanting to have her on their side. And AOR Tactics even have her write in journal "Poor, poor Seladon..." She was only pitying her for her rage and blindness. She knew she was not herself. And note how in the first episode she tells SkekOk she is not truely worthy of the princess title but her sisterS are, and proudly proceeds with admiration in her tone how Tavra is a great soldier and how Seladon will be the All Maudra one day. She was admiring and proud not just of Tavra but also Seladon. And in a way recognizing her hard work even if she did not agree with it often
So Tavra's death didn't make them grow a sidterhood out of nowhere like some fans wrongly say. It solidified it and made it reborn. They suddenly realized they only had each other now and it was no time to put frivolities and fights between it. And something Tavra wouldn't have wanted. They needed each other. They had suppressed their love for each other for too long over futilities in a royalty relationship they had used to replace their sibling relationship. It was time to reverse
26 notes · View notes
shut-up-its-funny · 4 years
Text
On The Sidelines Ch.One
Wordcount: 2821
Pairings: Roman/Remus, Virgil/Logan, Remy/Patton, Janus/Thomas
AO3
Roman and Remus were separated at fourteen and reunited eleven years later when Roman's band starts renting out the space downstairs from Remus' apartment.
Roman has talked about Remus to his friends as his childhood sweetheart, Remus is unaware of that.
One early morning he meets their blind manager and is recruited to be the new drummer.
Remus was jostled from the brink of sleep by a loud guitar strum, it wasn’t in his apartment, Jan and Virge don’t have guitars and it sounded like it came from downstairs.
Not to mention, they weren’t even home.
So Remus flops himself off of the couch, groggily swaying in place for a few seconds before walking towards the kitchen window when another loud strum is made along with the sounds of other instruments being tuned.
The place downstairs from his apartment was recently rented out to a club of sorts, maybe a band.
He gets to the window and leans out of it, there’s a van parked up near the entrance of the downstairs doorway, a man is facing the trunk mumbling to himself.
He bends into the back of the van to grab something, Remus isn’t gonna lie, he’s checking out this hotty who might be in a band.
“Hey handsome” he calls out “mind keeping the noise down a bit I haven’t slept in more than thirty six hours and the noise aint helping much.”
The man stiffens and scoffs “well’ he turns around “it’s noon so I think we ca-“ he stops and his eyes widen when he looks to Remus –“Remus?” his tone is incredulous.
Remus goes still, he blinks a couple of times, maybe he’s so tired he’s imagining it.
“Ro…man?” he splutters.
“Holy shit” Roman breathes “Holy shit!” He exclaims in excitement.
“Number six come up!” Remus says.
Roman looks to the open door and then back up at Remus, contemplating.
“Sure, the guys won’t mind me not helping for a little while.”
Roman closes the vans door to walk to the other side of the building, well more like sprint.
This is insane, Roman is here. Holy shit Roman is here.
They haven’t seen each other since they were separated at fourteen.
He doesn’t have time to worry about what’s going to happen cause a rapid knocking sounds out through his apartment.
Well, here goes nothing huh?
He opens the door and there Roman stands, rigid and jittery.
Here they face each other for the first time in eleven years, Remus can’t help himself; he pulls Roman in for a tight hug.
Roman instantly relaxes, squeezing Remus back.
Remus backs them into the living room, which is right next to the door; he’s still holding on to Roman and when they stumble, both boys laugh.
Roman chuckles “Remus, we can’t walk like this.”
“Says you” Remus smiles, he toddles them to the couch and flops them down.
It’s like they never really left each other.
Or that’s what Remus would like to think, so he’s just going to act like it.
They sit in silence; Roman moves his leg off of Remus’ lap, the silence that settles over them is splitting.
“So, the tuning noises, what’s going on with that?” Remus asks.
“Oh! I’m in a band; we’re renting out the space downstairs for our rehearsals.”
“Cool cool cool, what do ya play?”
“I’m” Roman says proudly with his hand fanned out to his chest “the lead singer.”
“Of course you are” Remus smiles fondly.
And more quiet.
Roman’s phone starts chiming with a cheery tune.
“Ah, that would be our bass player I should answer” he shimmies his phone out of his pocket and answers it. “Hey Pattycake, is anything wrong?”
Pattycake, well that sounds cutesy. Couple cutesy.
He knew things were gonna be different, they haven’t seen each other in eleven years, and they’ve only had minimal contact through email a couple of times.
It’s hard to stay in touch when their parents were dead set on them not ever seeing each other again. And sure, they could have done something more about that when they turned eighteen and were out from their parents thumb, but by that time both twins didn’t know how to approach the other anymore, and so time went on, they both got their own thing and even though they always thought about it they weren’t able to bring themselves to reach out.
And that brings us here, the awkward silence and Roman’s boyfriend.
It might be the lack of sleep, but Remus doesn’t feel too good.
He knows that he shouldn’t feel this way, Roman is obviously over it, he probably doesn’t even want it to be brought up.
Remus isn’t the type of person to keep things to himself, but for Roman he’ll keep all of his thoughts and feelings bottled up, he’s happy enough to have Roman back and he doesn’t wanna ruin it.
“Rem? Remus?” Roman shakes his shoulder.
Remus looks up at Roman, when did he stand up? “Hm?”
“I, have to go back down if I’m gone any longer Patton will drag me down himself” Roman chuckles “hey, do you wanna come down and meet the band?”
He really doesn’t want to do that.
“Nah” he waves off “I need to sleep, meeting new people wouldn’t be the best idea right now, you know me and spouting out whatever comes into my head.”
“Right, right of course thirty six hours awake” he sounds kind of, relieved?
Ouch.
“I should go” he gestures to the door “you know where to find me” and then he leaves.
Remus plops down sideways and sighs, he’ll feel better when he gets some sleep so he curls up and tries to stop thinking.
~~~
“Ro!” Patton chirps as he walks into their club “you said you had news?”
“I do indeed Pop Star, I was with Remus.”
Both of his band mates gasp, Patton more dramatically than Logan but Roman is glad he even got a gasp out of them.
“Holy moly, that’s great news right?” Patton asks, not sure on what kind of emotion to have for this information.
“Yes, of course it’s great news, I’ve missed him so much, but I get the feeling he doesn’t forgive me.”
“What did he do when he saw you?” Logan asks.
“Well, he hugged me and wouldn’t let go until we stumbled down.”
Patton and Logan share a look, Logan clears their throat.
“Roman, I may not be good with emotions but I am pretty sure that that is the opposite of not forgiving you, he seemed very happy to see you.”
“Did’ja ask him to come over?” Patton asks.
“I did yes” and he doesn’t know why he did, he’s not ready to explain that one.
That one being that his band mates don’t know Remus as his twin but as his childhood sweetheart, so when they do inevitably see him they’ll know and well, Roman doesn’t want to deal with that.
“And, he was too busy to come?” Patton hopes that’s the reason.
“Well, kind of. He was sleep deprived so he wanted to sleep, oh he asked if we can be quiet so he actually can sleep.”
“What does that mean?” Patton cocks his head.
“What do you mean what do- oh I forgot to mention that he lives upstairs didn’t I?”
“Oh my gosh! What an amazing coincidence” Patton gushes.
“Truly is, isn’t it” Roman laughs out a bit nervously.
“What’chu bitches talking about?” the voice of their manager Remy (co manager actually, Logan does the numbers stuff while Remy does the people stuff) chimes from the clubs door, he saunters in with a cup holder with four coffees on it and his seeing eye husky at his side.
“Oh Rem, you’ll never guess” Patton bounces as he takes his whipped cream topped ice cap.
“Mmhm, give me a little context before I blindly guess babe” he leans into Patton, who giggles at his boyfriends pun.
“Our prince has met with his long lost love, who get this: lives upstairs” Patton says excitedly.
“I wanted a sample not the entire pot of tea hon” Remy says with affection “but damn, that is some hot news Ro.”
Roman shrugs “I suppose so.”
“So, what are you gonna do about this?” Remy asks.
“Do about what? There’s nothing to do anything about.”
Remy raises an eyebrow, Roman can just imagine the look he’s receiving under those aviators.
“There’s an obvious course of action you can pursue here Roman, there are several but we all know the one you want to take so just do it and spare yourself some trouble” Logan says.
“It’s” Roman huffs “it’s not that easy guys.”
“Oh, do tell how seeing your first and only love again, whom may I remind you was happy to see you is not easy, just talk about your situation like adults and you’ll do perfectly fine” Logan informs.
“You realise who’re talking about don’t you Lo?” Remy stage whispers.
“Hm, you’re right. Roman can’t be in a serious adult conversation” Logan smirks.
“Oh ha ha. Good for me then cause Remus can’t either” Roman sticks his tongue out.
“Seems like you two were made for each other then.”
“Let’s just finish moving in huh, I don’t wanna continue this conversation right now” he’s scared of slipping up or not having an answer for something that he should have an answer for.
~~~
He wakes up extra groggy and it’s dark out and he’s still on the couch; he’s not sure if Jan and Vee got back yet, but he supposes if they have that they’re sleeping.
He scrabbles for his phone that is sitting on the coffee table, the light blinds him for a second before he can see the time.
Almost four am, okay well that’s a good enough time to get up, he’s been sleeping for about sixteen hours now.
He trudges his way through his apartment to get to the kitchen to get some water.
There’s light coming in through the window more than usual, are they still doing things downstairs?
Walking over to lean out the window he notices a man he’s never seen sitting on the stairs under the doors light; he’s throwing a stick for a large husky.
“Hey” he calls out, the man startles slightly.
“Roman?” He asks.
What? They don’t sound that much alike do they?
“Uhh, no. Remus actually” he responds.
“Ohhoh, Remus you say, well babe nice to finally meet you.”
Finally? Does Roman talk about him a lot to his band mates?
Is he part of the band?
“Are you part of the band?”
“Yeep, I’m the manager, names Remy.”
“Cool cool cool, cute dog.”
“I’ll have to take yours and everybody else’s word for it” he drawls, looking up towards Remus.
Remus sees the sunglasses that he didn’t notice when Remy was looking forwards.
“What are you doin up at four am?” Remus asks.
“What’re you doin up at four am?” Remy shoots back.
Well, they’ll get along just fine.
“Jus woke up” he slurs out “hey uh, is Ro there still?”
“Nope, left with Logan hours ago, just me an Pat now.”
Pat? Like Patton, who Remus assumed was Roman’s boyfriend Patton?
“O-oh yea Ro mentioned a Patton, the bassist right?” okay with the small talk Remus, just end the conversation now.
“Mmhm, exactly. Hey, do you know any drummers, we’re lookin for one.”
“I drum” he blurts. Why did he say that? Roman probably doesn’t want him around that much.
“Oh, interesting, wanna show me some stuff, we have a set down here.”
“Yea sure, no problem I’ll be right down” he walks away from the window “no problem at all yep, this is fine.”
He doesn’t bother putting shoes on or locking the door.
The husky makes a small noise as Remus walks towards Remy, Remy in turn makes a hand motion, the dog stops and sits next to its owner.
“How long have you been drumming for?” Remy asks as he stands up.
“About ten years, I don’t do it professionally though.”
“Well we won’t have any competition to get you in the band then, come on in” He gestures to the general area of the door then pats his thigh, the dog is instantly at Remy’s side and they’re walking in.
Why did he agree to this? He knows he’s a good drummer and this would be fun if he didn’t think Roman hated him.
Is it too late to back out? Probably. Just, flub the audition, there problem solved.
Remy stops them in what looks like the main room of the club area, there’s a singular couch (at least it’s one of those large L shaped ones) facing what can only be their playing area.
The lead singer’s mic is gold and under it is a red guitar.
To its left is an indigo guitar and its right is a light blue bass littered with stickers.
The drum set at the back is black and it is magnificent looking.
The set he’s had since uncle Thomas bought it for him at sixteen is a garish green and it’s all scratched and broken in places, Remus absolutely loves it, but he’s excited to use this beast of a drum set.
Near the drums sits a piano key board.
Farther into the room is a small bar area and the door behind the bar looks to go off into more rooms that he assumes are personal quarters.
Remy sits on the couch and leans back, he waves towards the instruments.
“Alright hot stuff, show me what’cha got hm?”
Okay, just have to mess up enough for him to not want you on the band. Easy right?
He sits himself at the drum set and picks up the sticks.
Well, here goes nothing.
He starts off by just banging around blindly, he eyes Remy to see if there’s any indication of being stopped but Remy has the best poker face Remus has ever seen.
Remus finishes his ‘audition’, Remy raises an eyebrow.
“Okay cool stuff babes, but like maybe actually play now.”
“Wha”-
“What are ya doin in here Rem?” A sleepy voice sounds from the door behind the bar.
Remus stares at the man who’s rubbing sleep from his eyes, presumably Patton squints at Remus then turns his head to Remy on the couch.
“Ro, when did you get back? Also, stop trying to play the drums, you know how much it frustrates you when you can’t play” he giggles then yawns, trudging up to Remy and plopping down next to him to sleepily lean into the blind man.
Remy kisses the top of Patton’s head.
“Oh babe, that’s not Roman.”
“Oh, oops I don’t have my glasses on right now, sorry mystery drumming person.”
Second time tonight someone mistook him for Roman.
“Not a mystery, this is Remus” Remy says like he’s talking about a celebrity.
Patton jumps up “ohmygosh! It’s so nice to meet you! Even if I can’t really see you that well right now, oh this is exciting! Are you trying out to be our drummer? Oh Roman is going to be so happy!”
Nice energy from this one.
“I am, but I’m”-
“Fuckin around your audition?” Remy asks in a tone that suggests that he’s not really asking.
“Not where I was going with that, but” he shrugs “ya caught me?”
“I’m not going to ask why you were trying to sabotage yourself, you could have just said you didn’t want to be here and it would have sufficed.”
Blunt, to the point and can sniff out bullshit, no wonder he’s the manager.
“Fuck” Remus sighs out “fine fine, I’ll play for real.”
He takes a deep breath and plays.
This set feels different from his own but he doesn’t fuck up once, his performance is flawless and he’s completely in the zone, he doesn’t notice the stars in Patton’s eyes or the impressed air coming off of Remy, he’s fully in his own world right now.
Drumming is very cathartic for Remus, letting all his worries out on the beat of his own imagination onto the drums makes him deal with the pent up emotion stirring within.
Patton is on his feet clapping for Remus when he ends, Remy too is clapping.
“That was so amazing! You have to be in the band! Remy, tell him” Patton shakes him.
“That was hella lit an all, and yea he would be a great addition, but it’s ultimately up to him.”
Patton looks at Remus with puppy dog eyes.
“I don’t think Ro”-
“Roman would be super duper happy if you join! I know this for a fact” Patton stops Remus’ thought.
For a fact? Is he supposed to believe that? Sure, Roman ran up to his apartment earlier and sounded genuinely excited when they saw each other, but he was also relived that Remus didn’t come down to meet his friends.
One way to find out.
“When’s practise start?”
Patton squees.
“Be here at one, Roman and Logan should be here around then too” Remy informs, he gets up to hold out his hand, Remus scrabbles over to shake it.
“Welcome to The Sidelines hon.”
25 notes · View notes
yungimmortals · 3 years
Text
phone numbers | jaime (ft. risa)
date: december 26, 2020
summary: a long-overdue phone call, a heavy dose of salt in an old wound, and a very low battery
An unknown number flashed across his screen. Never one to pick up the phone unless he absolutely had to (and definitely not one to pick up when he didn’t recognize the caller), Jaime let it go to voicemail, tossing his phone onto his bed. 
Swiveling in his desk chair, he spin in a full circle before returning his focus to  the project he had been working on since getting back to his apartment earlier that evening. Christmas with Katie’s family had been fun; now it was time for Jaime to recharge. Restoring a vintage typewriter -- Jaime’s Christmas present to himself -- was the perfect thing to do. In the last hour, he had polished it, ridding the typewriter of years of rust and grime. All the type-levers were in place, all the knobs and buttons in working condition. Now it was time to work on the carriage lever and the platen, time to get the machine ready for writing. 
Dismantling his typewriter was a delicate process, interrupted again by the ringing of his phone. “Where is it?” He mumbled, turning is his chair and taking a dive at the bed when he spotted his phone. Snatching it up, he recognized the same number that had called earlier but was saved the trouble of a debate as to whether or not he should answer it when his screen went dark once more. A moment later, a voicemail notification flashed across his screen.
Curiosity piqued, Jaime unlocked his phone, raising it to his ear to listen to the voicemail. The last voice he expected to hear drifted out of the phone’s speakers and he dropped it in surprise. 
Jaime, it’s me. I need to talk to you. I hope this is still your number.
Without hesitation, he returned the call. There was one ring, then two, then three. Jaime bounced his leg up and down before spinning around in his desk chair, his stomach a pit of nerves. As the line continued to ring, he was almost positive he had imagined the voicemail. But then there was an audible click, followed by the sound of his sister’s voice.
“So this is your number. Rowan’s handwriting is absolute shit, I couldn’t tell if that last number was a seven or a four. Can’t believe she wants to go to art school with that chicken scratch.”
“Risa?”  
“You sound surprised.”
“Well, I, er. That is-”
His sister’s laughter sounded tinny, far away. “Jaime, relax. Oh, and Merry Christmas. Did you get our card?”
Jaime switched the call to speaker phone and placed his phone on his desk. He stared at it blankly before scrubbing his face with his hands. “Card?”
“Yeah, Ro made you a Christmas card in her risography workshop. She’s building her portfolio for college but I’m sure she told you that since you talk, like, all the time.” Risa sounded bitter as she spoke, changing the subject quickly. “Anyway, I need to talk to you about something. Is this a good time?”
In eight years, his middle sister had never once called of her own volition. Even convincing her to be a part of Jaime and Rowan’s ‘family phone calls’, had taken a few years of their littlest sister badgering her. Now Risa was calling and it sounded important and Jaime couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He must have been silent for too long, he realized, hearing his sister clear her throat.
“Jay, if you’re busy, just tell me. I’ll find another time,” she said, though from her tone, Jaime could tell that if they didn’t talk about what was on her mind now, they likely never would.
“No! I mean, no, I’m not busy. I was just-- yeah, no, I’m here. What-- what’s up?” Jaime pushed his typewriter to the side before rummaging through his desk drawer for a notebook and pen (just in case he needed to take notes). He chuckled as Risa told him to buckle up, already welcoming the familiarity with which she was speaking to him, no matter how strange it felt.
“This isn’t what I’m calling about but I might as well tell you while we’re here. Dad’s sick. He said you cursed him or some shit, but it’s all bull. He went off the deep end a few years ago. Totally cuckoo. I figured you didn’t know, since you and Ro have your stupid agreement to never mention Charles to each other. Says he’s seeing things. Monsters and shit. Which I would call bull, but I remember that creepy guy. You know, the one waiter at the Dog & Pony that would always stare at you and Mom when we all went for dinner? He only had one eye. I don’t mean like an eyepatch. I mean one freaking eye, right in the center of his head. Don’t know if you ever noticed that, but I did.” Now that Risa had started talking, it seemed she couldn’t stop. “And that’s not the last time I saw something or someone weird like that. There’s a girl who works at the nature center in the park and I swear, Jay. I freaking swear that she melts into the trees. She’s a dryad right? I got lunch with your aunt last week and she filled me in on some stuff. I don’t know how she got in touch with us. Said something about your dad, I don’t remember. But, anyway, we got lu-”
“My aunt?” Jaime interrupted, feeling guilty for doing so, but not seeing where he could get a word in edgewise if he waited for her to pause.
“Oh, shit. Wait, there’s a picture, did I mention a picture? Before I forget. It’s with your card. I was digging through some of Mom’s trail crew stuff in the attic a while back, looking for her old boots, and I found it. It says ‘David’ with a heart next to it on the back. That was his name, right? Your dad?”
Jaime blinked, surprised at both the abrupt subject change and the mention of his father. He didn’t want the subject of his aunt to drop but the photograph won his curiosity. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“Okay, so you’ll see it, but, like, it’s totally weird. There’s a lens flare on it but it’s, like, just across your dad. Kinda ruins the whole picture, you can’t see him at all. It’s like when you try to take a photo of the sun. Mom looks beautiful though, but she always did. I think they were at Otter Cove, and I know that was one of your favorite trails.”
Like trying to photograph the sun. Jaime almost laughed. Risa had no idea how close to the truth she was. Which reminded him, “You had lunch with my aunt?”
“Dude, yeah. And she’s, like, so cool. If you’re related to so many cool people -- myself and Ro included, obviously -- how did you turn out like this?” 
He could hear Risa laugh on the other line and just rolled his eyes. He glanced down at his notebook where he’d written a collection of words: cursed, Cyclops, dryads in Acadia? The latter was underlined several times, whether from surprise or excitement, Jaime couldn’t remember. He realized his sister had started speaking again. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” 
“I was saying, if you were paying attention, that we went to Geddy’s -- that veg place on Main? -- for lunch and she was telling me about some fancy neo-classical city? New Athens or some shit like that, I think. In New York. Is that where you live? Ro told me you were like, weirdly into Greek mythology one time. But honestly, that tracks with some of the stuff I’ve seen. Hey, how come your aunt was looking for me, not you? She said something about mist but it was. like, not even a foggy day. We could see out over the harbor. Crystal clear.”
“The Mist,” Jaime correctly automatically, then pinched the bridge of his nose. The list in his notebook grew longer as their call stretched on. “I don’t know,” he admitted, in response to Risa’s question about his aunt. “Did she tell you her name?”
“Artemis? Which I was like hello, weird, since I was literally just thinking about you and your Greek mythology phase. I asked if she was David’s sister and she said ‘if that’s what he’s calling himself now’. Do estranged siblings run in your side of the family or something?”
At that, Jaime made a choking sound, staring at his phone. The resulting crow of laughter from his sister made it clear that she’d been expecting, no, hoping for that reaction. 
“Just messing with you, Jay. Relax. Anyway. She’s got this, like, wild grrl gang of hikers that travel the country? Gave me a pamphlet, told me to consider it. She said I could tell Rowan too, but when I did, Ro didn’t seem to care at all. She’s just got art school on the brain, I think. Your aunt had told me that would happen, said that the Mist was thicker around our sweet baby sister. But, uh, do you know what the Mist is? I’m, like, pretty sure you do since you corrected me a minute ago.”
“I-”
“Yeah that’s what I thought. So anyway, Aunt Artemis said you’re a demigod. Guess your dad’s name isn’t really David, huh? Last I checked, there’s no Greek god of boring dad names. Care to fill me in? Is that why I’ve seen some weird, like, mythological creatures around the harbor when we were growing up? Oh and Grandma Hana says hi.”
A distressed sound escaped Jaime’s lips. He had forgotten his sister’s habit of bouncing from subject to subject and here it was, smacking him in the face with more new information than he could handle at the moment. Christmas wishes had been exchanged with his grandmother the day before, so he didn’t have to worry about acknowledging that topic, thankfully. His brain was working in overdrive and he could practically feel Risa’s impatience, the longer he was silent.
“Jaime,” she prompted. 
He sighed, massaging his temples as he stared down at his phone. “His name isn’t David, it’s Apollo. Artemis’ brother. They aren’t named after the Greek gods, they are the Greek gods. So yes, that makes me a demigod. And it sounds like...you can probably see through the Mist. At least a little more than most mortals.”
“Holy shit. And you never thought ‘hey maybe I should tell my sister this super freaking weird but also totally cool thing about me’? What the shit, Jaime!”
He opened his mouth to tell her that he hadn’t known until after he left, until after he read the letter their mother had left for him, but Risa was steamrolling ahead.
“Wait...wait, so that was the Artemis? Your aunt is the Artemis? And she- and she invited me to join her immortal Hunt?” He heard a muffled shriek, like she had covered the receiver with her hand. A small smile spread across his face. “Well, I’m saying yes...obviously.”
“Okay, hold on a second there. That’s a big decision, don’t you think you shou-”
“Oh no, no. I’m going to stop you right there. You don’t get to play the big brother card here, Jay. You don’t get to keep secrets for years and then tell me I need to think about accepting an offer from a goddess. And don’t say some shit about me looking after Rowan. She doesn’t need anyone to look after her. You’d know that if you were here. Honestly, she does a better job looking after me than I do her. Shit, wait. Does that mean Dad’s not crazy? Did you really make all those people sick all the time? Did you...make Mom sick? Isn’t Apollo the god of healing?”
“I wasn’t playing the big brother card!” He protested weakly. As she continued, Jaime blanched. Several times. First at the mention of his absence, then at the mention of Charles’ theories, and again at the mention of their mother. “I’m sorry,” he started, hoping Risa understood that he was apologizing for leaving. They would have more time to unpack that later, he figured. 
"Charles is definitely still crazy. I didn’t make all those people sick. Mom either. I, uh, I only did it once. Made someone sick, I mean. It was a boy that bullied me at school during the years Mom was sick and Charles wouldn’t listen to me about it. One day the kid was beating me up and hitting me and, and I, I don’t know what happened. I pushed him and pushed? I don’t know, energy? At him, and I gave him the chicken pox or something, at least I think that’s what the school said. Chicken pox,” he scoffed, ducking his head, despite the fact that Risa couldn’t see him. “He’s the god of many things. Music, the arts, the sun. Healing, yeah, but plague and illness is the flip side of that.”
“Like the plague arrows he shot at the Greeks. Before you say anything, yes, I’ve read the Iliad. And The Song of Achilles, which, if you haven’t read it, you have to.” As if realized she’d gotten off track, Risa was quiet for a moment. Jaime was thankful she didn’t push him on the subject of his powers; he wasn’t sure what he would have said if she had. When his sister spoke again, she sounded farther away, her voice detached. “Artemis told me there are other children of Apollo. You have other family.”
It wasn’t a question, it was an accusation -- that was clear. When Jaime answered, he sounded tired. “I do, yeah.” Though his sister couldn’t see it, his expression was one of regret. “But it’s, it’s not like that, Ris.”
“I didn’t ask what it was like,” she snapped. After a moment of tense silence, he could hear her sigh. “I’m going to contact Artemis. Learn as much about your world as she’ll tell me. And then I’m going to join the Hunt.”
With a click, the line went dead. 
Jaime stared at his phone in silence until the screen darkened, battery dead as well. He heaved a sigh, detangling himself from his desk chair to plug his phone into the cord on his nightstand to charge. So much for recharging, he thought to himself, knowing his own battery was dangerously low. Exhaling a groan, Jaime sunk onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling once more. To the constellations on his ceiling, he murmured, “That went about as well as it could have, all thing considered.”
1 note · View note
ionlyeatcomfortfood · 5 years
Text
Together Forever
A/N: Yo! I’m writing again! Hallelujah. Yes, before you ask, I will be continuing the Selection story and the soulmates au. I’m working on both right now, actually. But with the way my brain works, I need to bounce around with projects to get anything done, so here’s my entry to @stop-it-anxiety ‘s writing competition. The prompt was ‘Together Forever’, so here’s my angsty Roman fic because what do you expect?
Here’s a link to the page if you want to participate.
A/N 2.0: Holy shit, this got darker than I thought it would. Like, I planned Delcan being a not so great partner, but I didn’t think it would get this bad. Please, read the warnings and if anything there triggers you, DON’T READ THIS. It’s okay if you just can’t read this. I want everyone to be safe, and if that means you don’t read this, then it’s okay.
Word Count: 1747
Pairings: Abusive Rociet, Prinxiety, Background Logicality
Warnings: (There are a lot, so bear with me) Remus, Deceit (Delcan), abusive relationship, drinking, throwing things, keeping person from friends/loved ones (?), lack of consent, non-consensual... personal activities (only mentioned, not in detail), ace phobia, cheating. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, then don’t read it. It’s okay, I’ll live.
--------
Together forever.
It was a dream Roman had since childhood. To be with someone for their entire lives. For forever.
His twin brother (who was unfortunately older by 6 minutes and 9 seconds) Remus was constantly saying that it was a useless dream. That there was no such thing as true love. That love was a made up fairy tale that adults told to make them be quiet and go to bed.
And he wasn’t wrong to have these doubts about love. The twins parents split when they were five, and their dad left them. Their mom then started drinking to cope with her loss, and she stopped acting like their mom.
Remus had lost faith in love. But all those unfortunate events made Roman even more convinced that true love was what he needed. He just needed to find the right person.
-------
Roman thought that Delcan was his true love. When they met at an audition for Guys and Dolls, flirting back and forth like there was no tomorrow, Roman thought he had found the one. 
After they had both made it into the show, Roman playing Sky Masterson and Delcan playing Nathan Detroit, Roman finally gathered up the courage to ask Delcan out. To Roman’s surprise, Delcan said no. Roman had to ask three more times before Delcan finally agreed to go on a date.
The date went swimmingly. They played off each other, witty banter common. This time, when Roman asked for a second date, Delcan automatically agreed.
They dated for three months before Delcan began to really show his true colors. The first time was closing night. The cast was going out for drinks after, and Delcan and Roman agreed, despite Roman not being a drinker. Turns out Delcan was. He took rounds and rounds of shots, till he was so far gone Roman had to practically carry him out of the bar.
When he dropped Delcan off at his apartment, Delcan begged him not to leave. Roman insisted that he had to get back to his house, and Delcan got angry. He grabbed a lamp and chucked it at Roman’s head. Roman managed to dodge it, but just barely. 
Roman left after that.
The next morning, Delcan texted him, profusely apologizing, saying that he was always different when he drank, that it would never happen again. Roman, being the fool in love that he was, forgave him.
But it did happen again. And things got worse.
Delcan gradually started to ask Roman to hang out all the time. Roman barely got to see his friends anymore. Delcan would ask (demand) to see his phone to make sure that he wasn’t texting or calling anyone Delcan didn’t know, or that Delcan didn’t like.
Delcan asked Roman to move in with him, and when Roman showed hesitation, them only being together for four months at this point, Delcan made a big deal out of the fact that Roman was the first person Delcan had ever asked to move in, that he should feel special. So Roman did feel special. He moved in. Things got even worse from there.
Delcan would drink and get upset, throw things, mostly aimed at Roman’s head. He would always apologize, but Roman was starting to doubt those apologies and how genuine they really were.
He would leave for long periods of time, never telling him where he was going. When Roman asked him about it, he would tell him to fuck off and mind his own business.
Later in the relation, Delcan would force himself on Roman and make him do things he wasn’t ready for. Roman was asexual, which he told Delcan, but Delcan told him he would grow out of it, that he just needed some special treatment from him. Roman grew to believe him.
One day, Roman got the announcement that two of his best friends, Patton and Logan, were getting married, and he was invited. Roman begged Delcan to let him go. “Just this one time, then I won’t ask again, I promise.” 
Delcan agreed, but he was never to ask again.
Roman got dressed up and went to the venue. It was a beautiful. Patton looked lovely in his dress, and Logan looked dashing in his suit. When they kissed, Roman cheered the loudest.
At the reception, Patton came and gave Roman the biggest hug.
“Ro! I can’t believe you’re here! It’s been so long!” Patton squealed.
“Yes, it has been quite some time Pat. It’s great to see you.” Roman hugged Patton back just as tight.
“Logan. How are you?” Roman asked when Patton released him.
“I am extremely happy right now, Roman. Thank you for coming.”
“Of course! How could I miss something this important?” Roman said.
Patton and Logan share a glance before Patton said “Well, we weren’t sure that you were coming, Ro.”
“What?” Roman asked incredulously. “Of course I would come! What would make you think-”
“You have been spending all of your time with your boyfriend, Roman. That’s why we didn’t think you were coming,” Logan interrupted.
“I haven’t been spending all of my time with Delcan.”
“Ro, when was the last time you hung out with us?” Patton asked.
“We... we hung out a couple months- and it’s bad that I have to go that far back,” Roman realized.
“We’re your best friends. We understand if your busy, but spending all your time with one person is not healthy,” Logan said.
“No, I don’t spend all my time with Delcan. I-I’ve just been busy,” Roman’s mind was racing. Did he spend all his time with Delcan? He hadn’t really done anything since Guys and Dolls. Maybe he was spending too much time with Delcan.
“Ro, maybe... maybe Delcan isn’t the best partner for you,” Patton rested a hand on Roman’s shoulder.
“No! He loves me, and I love him! We’re fine!” Roman snapped. Patton drew his hand back.
“Roman...” Logan placed a hand on the small of Patton’s back while speaking to Roman.
“Sorry, but I have to go. It was a beautiful service, and I’m happy for you two,” He couldn’t think. He needed Delcan. Delcan always knew what to think.
“Ro, wait!” Patton cried, but Roman was already out the door.
-------
Roman was thinking all the way back to his and Delcan’s place. Sure, he realized he spent way too much time with Delcan. He would change that. He would spend more time with his friends.
But Delcan wasn’t a bad person, he thought. Delcan just had a temper. He made mistakes. He always apologized.
By the time he got back, he had almost completely convinced himself that Patton and Logan were just paranoid and overthinking.
That all changed when Roman walked in on Delcan making out with a stranger on their couch. 
Roman didn’t remember a lot from that night. Everything was a blur, and all he really remembered was how he felt.
First anger. Red hot, fury of hell anger. Then sadness. The utter sadness that comes with a broken heart. Then, finally, fear.
He broke up with Delcan that night. Roman grabbed his stuff, Delcan’s screams a background sound, and left, a teacup smashed on the door as he walked out.
-------
There were only who people who knew that story: Logan and Patton. He had explained it to them when he begged to crash at their apartment, because he had nowhere else to stay.
That is, until tonight. When his boyfriend, Virgil, made an inquiry about his past.
It had taken Roman awhile to get back on the dating scene after Delcan. Honestly, he didn’t think he would ever mount that great beast ever again. But then Virgil came around. At first, they were enemies. Virgil was sarcastic and rude, always pushing Roman to be the worst version of himself, over-dramatic and egotistical.
But when he found Virgil having an anxiety attack, he shed all his previous grudges against him and helped him get through it. From that, they got closer and closer, till one day, Roman finally gather up the courage to ask Virgil out. And this time, Virgil said yes on the first try.
They had been dating for over a year. They had fallen into an easy rhythm, and Roman had never been happier.
Virgil never pushed him. He knew Roman had some deep shit from his past, but he never pressed Roman to talk about it. And Roman loved him for it. But tonight, he decided that was going to change.
They were having their usual weekend movie night, when Virgil asked a small question. Nothing big really, but to Roman, the question meant everything.
“So, I heard from a friend that you were in a production of Guys and Dolls with Delcan Rose. Is that true?”
Roman paused for a moment. He knew if he started to talk about Delcan, his whole story would come flowing out. Was he really ready for that.
“Ro?”
For Virgil, yes. He was ready to tell this boy he loved with all his heart a story know by very few,
“Yes. I actually dated him for awhile.”
Virgil’s eyes widened. “You dated Delcan Rose? What was it like?”
Roman sighed. “Awful.”
And the story flew from his lips like a murder of crows. All the abuse and heartbreak he had to deal with, all the hurt came out of him.
When Roman had finished, Virgil let out a breath and said “That is utterly disgusting.”
“Yeah.”
“I am glad that you told me about that, Ro. I’m glad you trust me enough to tell me. But holy shit is that dark.”
Roman just nodded.
“Hey. What happened to you is not your fault. I want you to know that. Everything that Delcan did was horrible, but that was on him. Nothing that happened to you was your fault.”  While Virgil was speaking, he rubbed his hands through Roman’s hair, knowing that he would like it.
“I love you.” Roman said.
“Love you too, Ro.”
Roman pulled back for a second to grab something out of his pocket. It had been a year of bliss and happiness. Slowly, Virgil helped him heal, even if he didn’t know it. Delcan had made his life a living hell, but Virgil had changed it into heaven.
So Roman pulled out a little box, and asked the question he had been thinking about for a couple weeks.
“Virgil, will you marry me? Please?”
----------
TAGLIST (Let me know if you want to be added!)
@redistooviolent
@loginceismyjam
@steampunkicarus
@jellopuffs
@hekking-happy-nonsense
@a-trans-ghost
@chaotic-sinnabun
119 notes · View notes
moonlight-mellohi · 4 years
Text
The Question
(Actual fanfic posted May 10th, 2019)
Ok so I've had this idea for a few days as a random thought, but I thought earlier " ehh, it's good enough to write" so.... I wrote this from 10:51 pm to 12:30 am. I need to wake up at 5 aaahhHHHHH (who's yelling at me to sleep because it's 1:09?)
Anyways please enjoy this tiredly written student mystery that's given right away by the tags, tell me if I made a mistake anywhere, good night :)
Ao3 link
Fanfic master post link
Words: 1,178
Summery: The Question
Without realizing it, theater teacher Mr. Prince, or Roman as he insisted, had The Question follow him for two and a half years. What was The Question?
WHY
WHAT
LGBT+
WHO
Ok that was four questions, but they all surrounded one thing
Roman's mysterious partner
1
WHY
 
The Question was something that changed throughout the two and a half years Mr. Prince, or Roman as he wished his students to call him, had so far worked at Marebelle Performing Arts High School. At first it was why. Why did he teach here, working as a drama teacher, instead of performing on Broadway?
The student who had asked one day during the end of the first year got the answer with a happy laugh from the dramatic teacher.
“It’s true, I’ve always wanted to be there, up on the big stage, but then who would teach you to follow your dreams there as well? A mediocre drama teacher who doesn't care and just wants pay? NO SIR! (he said while throwing his hands up, the student informed) I wish to teach the future, the ones that instead of me being up there, I get to know I’m the one who helped you get there! My love encouraged it, saying that if I could help now, the results later would make me brighter then any stage light!”
Now with their answer, the students sighed in relief knowing that this was a teacher who wanted to help, one who truly loved his subject. The first The Question was done, until a girl spoke up….
“Wait, theater isn’t the only love in his life?”
 
2
WHAT
 
The Question two was what? Confusion swept and sure, Roman was quite handsome (insert girls swooning for the first two weeks) but he had never spoke of a love before this. Summer started after that, leaving it to sink into all their already stressed brains.
The answer arrived when someone asked on the third day back, many kids blushing since they had all also wanted to bring it up, but had no courage whatsoever to ask something so personal, even with Roman being so open. He smiled so wide, looking off with unintentional dramaticness and eyes glazed over.
“Yes, yes he was so supportive with my dreams of teaching instead of my own high school dream of acting. I still act in smaller shows you know, and he’s always there, no matter the crowd….” he sighed not realizing that now, another question had appeared.
 
3
LGBT+
The Question three, one that made all those original girls swoon falter, was he gay? Sure, he gave off the vibe, but it was never right to assume. The students pondered over this for a good while before asking finally nearing the end of school again, pondering how to ask in a not rude way.
No matter the case though, Roman just shook his head with his bright, signature smirk as someone stuttered to ask.
“You are correct! But you see, I am pan, not just gay. My heart just lead me to my dream prince, not princess nor other royalty. We may clash immensely, but fit together so well.”
Later that week, he had a small pan flag necklace, the golden chain flashing in the light. He claimed that his boyfriend had got a matching gay flag one, his chain a shiny black.
Which brought up the last The Question.
4
WHO
 
Surprisingly, The Question who was not answered by a student asking. It was answered mid December by Roman himself. Roman was pacing on stage as a few students poked their heads into the theater room at lunch, wondering if they could ask a question (not a The Question) and watched him speak on the phone.
“I’m so sorry I know your writing but that’s WHY I asked you, your home. I know, I know, I just forgot the prop box on the table…. Yes I know you can scolded me to no ends tonight just can you bring it over please? Lunch is almost over” he seemed to perk up “yes! Yes 2:30 would be fine! No I swear V, I think my classes have been making conspiracy theories about you on anything I say.. Yes I’m surprised I don’t rant about you often either. No don’t whine at me! Argg VVVV. Alright see you soon. I love you darkling” he finished with a smile and quickly hung up a quiet echo of “ROMAN I SWEAR-” but the students didn't have time to focus on that. Because now they only had two hours to tell the entire class of the theater department that (now known initial) V was coming.
Roman’s love would be revealed.
Thank the Greek gods that they were THEATER kids. Because once it went out to one group, it spread like wildfire.
 
The Class of 2:30 as we will can them (fight me) watched as the clock ticked. Currently they were failing to practice their parts for A Christmas Carol, since one, they didn’t have certain props,
A figure entered the office box in hands, signing in as a guest and waving to his old attendant, before making his way through old halls to the theater room
And two
He walked towards the double doors, looking around as memories flashed into his eyes
He would be arriving any seco-
The doors opened swiftly “‘holy shit Ro, I swear this place has barely changed.”
Everyone’s head swerved to see a dark figure walking down the steps, box in hand while their mouths dropped. Roman perked up like no one had seen before, not even the time a student claimed and then sang as many Hamilton songs in the class time as the could, claiming they knew them all and in order.
“I mean I just looked into the courtyard where we shared our first kiss, by the way class, please blame him for me remembering, and it’s so fucked up. Like, aren't you guys always inside? Who the hell goes outside anymore? Not me” the figure smirked marching the last steps, placing the box on the stage and jumped up standing by Roman, one grinning mischievously, the other giddily.
“Everyone” Roman announced in his loud voice “this is my boyfriend, Virgil.”
The Virgil in question, or The Question still fit, was wearing a black purple patched jacket that hung of his skinny frame, a black shirt that said “I Joined the Black Parade” and black ripped skinny jeans. A shock of purple and black hair covered his head, making shadows over his heterochromic purple and green eyes, eye shadow lathered below. A black choker ran around his neck, the gay flag making an appearance. He raised his hand to brush the bangs from his eyes, showing black painted nails against pale skin, a small lightning cloud charm shining off a purple, black, and white weaved bracelet. Matching the red, gold, and white one Roman had, a crown dangling from his. A pair of black and neon purple wireless headphones laid on his neck. He was on the short side for an adult, with Roman being a bit taller than average. They were, as Roman said, complete opposites.
Virgil smirked as he turned to Roman, catching a kiss on the head. “I didn't interrupt anything now, did I Princey?”
1 note · View note
kpoprunsmylifenow · 5 years
Text
One for Another
Rowoon x Reader
Fluff
Summary: You worked at the tattoo shop, Fantasy, for almost a year. Chani caught onto your crush on Rowoon and decided to help you two get together.
Tumblr media
You’d been working at the tattoo shop called Fantasy for almost a year now. You were super close with all the boys, and was even helping train Hwiyoung. And even though you were super close with all the boys, you still managed to get a crush. You saw your crush developing a little while after you got there, I mean who would blame you. All of the boys were exceptionally handsome. So when Chani saw that you were starting to crush on his older friend, he called you out on it.
“How long have you liked him?” He asked as you sat in the chair in your station.
“Liked who?” You asked. You had a small headache behind your eyes, so you weren’t really paying much attention to him.
“Rowoon.” This made you look up real quick.
“What?”
“You heard me, how long?” And you knew he’d push this until you answered him honestly. You sighed.
“For a couple of months.” You said quietly. You didn’t really want to confess to it, cause you knew saying it would make reality set in and you wasn’t sure if you were ready for that. Rowoon was such a nice guy, and you were 99% sure that he didn’t like you back.
“I could’ve called that.” He said nonchalantly as he sat back in the chair.
“Then why did you ask?” You whined as you pushed him off the chair. You laughed as he hit the ground.
“I just wanted you to admit it to yourself!” He groaned out as he sat up from the hard floor. You leaned back into your chair as sighed. You knew he was right.
When your one year at the shop came, the boys threw you a small party. All the guys were drinking in the room with all the tattoo stations, and you chilled looking at all the boys playing around in a corner.
“You know this is your party.” You heard Rowoon say as he leaned against the wall beside you.
“I know.” You took another sip of your drink.
“Then why does it look like you aren’t enjoying it?”
“I am. I’m just not as wild as you all are.” You said as you took another drink. To be quite honest, you really needed a night like this. Your classes were stressing you out so much, and there was a girl who kept coming into the shop for Rowoon. Chani even said he didn’t know who it was. So when someone asked him, he winked and said it was someone special. So you hadn’t really talked to Rowoon since.
“I mean you have a point, but you just seem so sad lately.” He said as he wrapped his arm around you shoulders.
“It’s my professors and finals are coming up.” You sighed as you took a big gulp. You couldn’t get drunk tonight, but you could definitely get buzzed, and that was your plan.
“Make sure you get a lot of sleep then, don’t think we haven’t realized that your dark circles haven’t got worse.” He gave you a pointed look and walked off to go mess with Chani.
Later that night, everyone but you and Chani were drunk.
“How about we play truth or dare?” You heard a drunk Dawon ask. Everyone was ready to play soon after. As the turns went on, you started to wind down, and then it was Chani’s turn.
“Y/N truth or dare?” You laughed.
“Dare.”
“I dare you to get a piercing that I chose.” You laughed, it wasn’t like you don’t have any, but Chani would make you get one you would hate.
“Can you at least be nice and pick one that I won’t hate?” You pleaded. He nodded and you decided to have it done tomorrow when you came in for work. And then you tried to find someone to pick on. And then you saw Rowoon.
“Rowoon, truth or dare?” You smiled sinisterly.
“Dare.” You laughed. Rowoon didn’t have any tattoos, so you knew you had to change that.
“I dare you to get a tattoo that I pick.” Rowoon looked at you like you had two heads.
“That’s too close to Chani’s dare for you!” He yelled as the other boys laughed at his panic.
“I promise it’ll be small and look good.” You winked and he deflated a little. A small fine escaping his lips before he chose Inseong. As the night wore on, soon all of them were passed out on the floor, and somehow Zuho made it up to a chair and laid it down to cuddle with Youngbin.
“I’ll leave you to tend to them in the morning since I have a quick class before I come in.” You said to Chani as you started to pull on your jacket.
“Oh wow. Thanks. It’s your party and you can’t even get pass out drunk.” And you both laughed. “I’ll be sure to pick a good piercing for you!” He winked as you walked out the door.
That next morning, when you entered the shop, you laughed as you saw the closed sign still on the door. When you walked into the back, you heard someone groaning, and found it to be Dawon. He had arguably drank the most last night, and his hangover was hitting him hard.
“Hey Dawon,” You said quietly. “How about we get off the floor and up into a chair?” You said as you pulled him up into your arms. He nodded his head a little as you pulled him up into the chair, laying him down. You put your flannel down over his head, knowing that the darkness would help him. “I have some pain medicine in my bag, I’ll go get you a bottle of water to take it with.” You saw a thumbs up from him and you chuckled a little. You passed Chani on the way to the chill room.
“Hey, when did you get here?” He asked as he had a couple of bottle of water in his head.
“I just got here, and now I’m going to get some pain medicine from my bag. Dawon is dying.” You giggled as he followed you. When you got back to Dawon, you saw Rowoon sitting there checking on him.
“Hey Ro.” You said quietly as you tapped the bottle of water into his hand. “Make sure you sip it, I don’t need you puking okay.” And he sat up a little to drink the water. You opened the pill bottle and gave him 2. After you were sure he wouldn’t die if you left him alone, you gave him a small bag of chips to snack on. You saw Chani and Rowoon talking when you got back in the chill room.
“I’m glad to see everyone isn’t dying of a hangover.” You said as they laughed.
“I don’t really get hangovers. Plus Inseong and Youngbin went to get food. That’s the main reason that the shop is still closed.” Rowoon said as he pulled you into his side. “Are you ready for your piercing yet?” He asked. You laughed and nodded.
“Are you ready to get your tattoo?” And this made him blanche. He’d forgotten you’d dared him that last night.
“It’s small right?” He asked. I nodded. You’d had a great idea when you were in class, and spent the whole 2 hours drawing it. You know that the boys all wanted to get a tattoo that they could look at to remember the days of the shop. And you think that you had made that. You sent it to Youngbin earlier and he said he loved it, and if you could he wanted it today.
“I sent it to Youngbin earlier and he’s getting it today too.” You said as you walked to the piercing room. Chani followed behind and pulled out the jewelry. “I’m glad you remembered that one time I said I wanted to get my septum pierced.” You laughed, and sighed in relief. Chani left as Rowoon started to get ready.
“You already know how this goes right?” He asked as he open the jewelry.
“For the most part yeah.” You said as you got comfortable on the bench.
“Good. I’m just gonna mark it and feel the space between the cartilage to get the good spot.” He said as he started to feel around the middle part of your nose, marking a dot on both sides, making sure that it was straight. “And now we’re ready to go. Take a couple of breaths and I’ll do it when you least expect it.” You laughed as he put the clamps on your nose. You calmed down and took some breaths and then he put the needle through. You groaned a little as it started to sting some. You took a couple of deep breaths because you didn’t want to jump from the sudden pain. “And now to put the jewelry in, and then you should be done.” You opened your eyes and found him super close. You wanted to jump, but you couldn’t with the needle still in your nose. As soon as he screwed the ball onto the jewelry, so grabbed the mirror he handed you.
“Oh wow.” You gasped. “It looks so good. Holy shit.” You said as you turned and looked at yourself in the mirror. You knew you’d always wanted to get it done, but you didn’t know it’d look this good on you.
“It does. It definitely suits you.” He said as he smiled. He took off his gloves. “So when’s my appointment with my tattoo artist?” He asked as he winked.
“We can do it now.” You said as you got up off the table. “Come on, let me go grab my notebook.” You headed out of the piercing room, pointing at him to go ahead and sit in the chair. You grabbed your drawing and headed back to your station, making sure to hide it behind your back. “So I’m gonna keep it a surprise, but where do you want it?” You asked as you pulled your chair over to him.
“On my wrist?” He said in a questionable tone.
“It’ll look good there. Here, turn away.” You said as you cleaned off his arm and shaved some of the hair off.
“You’re not starting it yet right?” He asked, the fear showing in his tone.
“No. I’m only putting the stencil on.” You smiled as you saw him relax some. “Plus, if it gets too bad, we can always take a break.”
“Alright.” And with that he looked away. When you lined the stencil up, you told him he could look again as you held it to his skin. He was quiet as you pulled the paper off his arm. “Is that the logo for the shop?” He asked as he laughed.
“Yeah. I remember how everyone wanted a tattoo to remember the shop by, so I made this.” “Is this the one Youngbin is getting?” He asked.
“Yep.” You said as you started to get the ink ready. “Youngbin is getting his in color, but I can do yours in black and white if you want.”
“What does it look like in color?” You pulled your phone out and showed him the picture of color vs. non color. “Oh, I really like the colored one.” You smiled and grabbed the colors. When you were ready, you put on your gloves.
“Remember, we can always take a break if it gets too much.” You said as you got ready to start.
“Wait!” You stopped and looked up at him. “What did it feel like when you got yours?”
“Really it only stung. Not a bad pain.” You smiled as you told him to roll up your shirt sleeve to show him your first tattoo.
“It’s so pretty.” He said as he ran his finger over the tattoo.
“Thank you. You ready to start now?” You asked as you got ready again.
“Yeah.” And with that you started Rowoon’s first tattoo. You made some small talk, him asking about your classes and you asking him about his side of the shop. Then you decided to ask him about that girl.
“Who’s that girl that keeps coming into the shop?” You looked at him.
“Oh, that was a girl I’m talking to.” He smiled. You tried to give him a real smile, but he could tell it was forced. “Why?”
“Everyone’s been wondering, and the last time someone asked you said someone special.” You trailed off and focused more on the tattoo. Youngbin came in towards the end of Rowoon’s tattoo.
“Hey guys.” You nodded your head, focusing. “Oh damn. That looks really good Y/N.” You smiled and said a small thanks.
“And, we are done.” You said as you wrapped up your arm. You gave him the run down on cleaning it and keeping it moisturized. He nodded, thanked you for it, and left to go show Chani. You sighed and deflated in your seat.
“What’s up?” Youngbin asked.
“I know Chani told everyone but Rowoon about my crush on him.” You said and Youngbin laughed.
“What about it?” “I asked about that girl again. They’re talking.” You said as you threw away everything you used on Rowoon’s tattoo.
“Oh, Y/N.” He hugged you and you leaned into his comfort.
“Let’s get your tattoo done yeah.” You said as you started to set up everything again. “Where you getting it done?”
“Right over my heart.” He said as he look off his shirt. You looked over at his chest, pointing at a spot. He nodded his head and you nodded. You told him to sit down, sketching out the drawing again, making sure to make it small enough to fit in the spot on his chest. You transferred it to his skin and held it there to make sure that it got put onto the skin. “So what else did he say?” Youngbin asked as you finished the outline.
“Nothing really. He tried to make some small talk but I guess he figured out that I didn’t want to talk anymore.” You sighed as you started on adding the color.
Then you heard a loud crash come from the front room. You knew Dawon was still asleep, and everyone else was home besides either in your eyesight or in the piercing room.
“She what?” You heard yelled. You blanched, you were the only female here and you knew that that voice was Rowoon. You heard loud footsteps come into the back.
“Uh, Y/N.” You saw Chani lean against the wall of your station too nonchalantly.
“What did you do?” You groaned. You just could not catch a break.
“You know I love you right.” He said as he back hugged you and kissed your head. You spun around.
“Now I know you did something.” He grimaced. “What did you do?”
“I may have told Rowoon about your crush.” You froze, even Youngbin was shocked.
“Chani!” You wanted to cry. He’s gonna hate you now.
“I know! I’m sorry!” Youngbin started to laugh at your shocked and fear frozen face. You saw Dawon roll over, finally waking up.
“Dawon, my love, my heart. Can you please take Chani away from him before I tattoo the worst thing on his fucking forehead for being an idiot?” You asked, malice in your voice. Dawon looked at you, and then at Chani’s face before he decided it was best to do as you asked. “Thanks baby!” You said as you leaned back in your chair, embarrassment flowing through you.
“You know this may not be a bad thing.” Youngbin said as you started on his tattoo again.
“I know. But it could also be a really bad thing.” You said quietly.
You didn’t see Rowoon for the next week, having took off for your finals. But you did go to the shop a couple of times to check on your bookings for the next week. Youngbin was nice enough to put Chani at the front, to keep him away from Rowoon.
“Can I have my booking list please?” You asked as you leaned heavily against the desk.
“You haven’t been getting a lot of sleep.” You heard come from behind you, but you didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was.
“Yeah, that comes with having a fuck ton of finals all at once Rowoon.” You said as you looked through the list. You sighed, one of the guys coming in was in your class and would nonstop try and flirt with you. “Can you see if he’ll take literally anyone else? He always tries to flirt with me, and I am not in the mood to deal with his shit.” You said as you handed the book back to Chani. “If you could, give him to Zuho.” You smiled evilly.
“I’ll call him and see if he wants.” Chani smiled at you, glad that he hadn’t been on your shit list for too long. You turned around to see Rowoon still standing there.
“I didn’t know you had finals.” You heard him saw quietly. “I thought you were avoiding me.” You winced, blushed, and looked away.
“Uh, yeah. I had all my finals this week. And now that I’m done, all I need to do is 3 more semesters before my degree is done.” You sighed, heading back to grab your portfolio to get the tattoo drawing you had for your next appointment. While you were waiting for your appointment to get here, you started getting ready so you didn’t have to wait when they got there. You didn’t realize someone was standing there, since you were so spaced out. You heard someone clear their throat and you looked over to see Rowoon standing there. He looked significantly more nervous than you’ve ever seen him, and that was including the tattoo you’d given him.
“Hey Rowoon.” You said as you continued to get ready for the tattoo.
“Hey, I wanted to talk to you while you were still here.” He said as he came and sat on the chair.
“Okay.” You looked over at him quickly.
“It’s about what Chani told me.” This made you freeze. You just knew that he was gonna tell you that he was dating that other girl. “I, uh, just wanted to know if what he said was true?” You continued to get ready, deciding to just get it over with.
“It is.” You said as you made sure you put ink into their holders.
“Then why have you been ignoring my texts?” He asked as you sighed.
“Cause I know you don’t like me.” You looked over at him, and he looked offended and shocked.
“Who told you that!?” You laughed a little.
“No one told me. You’ve been talking to that girl for a while now, so I knew I didn’t have a chance.” You said as you grabbed the drawing and made sure you liked how it looked. If you had looked at Rowoon, you’d have seen him come closer to you. Suddenly your chin was being grabbed and making you look at the boy, who was now exceptionally close to you now.
“I’ve liked you since you started to work here.” He said truthfully. “I told Youngbin, but we both decided it wasn’t a good idea since you’d just started here and was still trying to fit in with the rest of us.” He took a break and brushed his thumb over your cheek. “But as time went on, my crush grew more and more. So I decided to see if talking to someone else would replace what I felt for you. But I realized you might feel the same way when you asked about her when you were giving me my tattoo, and then got quiet.” He smiled a little. “And then Chani spilled that you liked me on accident.” This made you groan and hid your red face in his neck.
“Don’t mind me.” You said as you sighed.
“But then you didn’t show up to the shop for a couple of days, and I thought that you’d left.” He pulled your face away from him. “I got so scared, I even called Youngbin to ask if you’d quit. But all he knew was that you’d asked for a week off without saying why.” He took a breathe. “So I just had to wait till you came back. And now you are, and I told myself I was gonna tell you how I feel.” You smiled and grabbed his hands that was covering your cheeks.
“I’m glad you told me.” You smiled as you leaned into his hands.
“Me too. Wanna know why?” He smirked.
“Why?”
“So I can do this.” And he pulled you forward to press a sweet kiss to your lips. You heard Chani yelling that your client was here and smiled. “I also plan to take you on a date to that cafe you’re obsessed with tonight.” You shouted to send them back as you smiled at Rowoon.
“Alright.” You bit your lip. “I have a tattoo to do though.” You pushed him aside as she walked in.
“Fine.” He kissed your forehead. “But after our date tonight I’m making sure you get enough sleep.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else coming from you Ro.” You winked and started to get the client ready for her tattoo. While you were doing the tattoo, all you could think about was Rowoon.
“Was that your boyfriend earlier?” She asked. You laughed a little.
“Not officially, but I can say it’s leaning more towards a yes.” You smiled.
“I’m glad. I came in a couple days ago, and he recognized me when I was getting my septum pierced. He asked me if I’d seen you.” You laughed at this.
“Yeah, I don’t doubt it. I’ve been having my finals for this semester and took off without telling anyone.” You smiled.
“Well it’s great that he worries about you.” She smiled. You saw Rowoon walking out of the piercing room with a freshly pierced client.
“Yeah it is.”
53 notes · View notes
ilovemygaydad · 5 years
Text
Friends in Dark Places [ch 12]
pairing: moxiety, eventual logince, background eventual remile, background eventual remy/emile/deceit
WARNINGS: sensory overload, panic attacks, self hate, school dances, swearing, food mentions, kissing, embarrassment, rumors, eating, possibly something else
tag list: @hufflepuffgirl01 @cocobearthe4th @cas-is-a-hunter @band-be-boss-blog @theunoriginaldaisy
a/n: so i have to repost all of these in a different format! yay fucking me!!!! please consider reblogging these if you’re a fan of this series because it’s all fucked up now
first - previous - next - companions
consider buying me a coffee (please)
-
“So, Virgil. Are you going to prom?” Roman casually asked before popping a french fry in his mouth.
“Um, I don’t know. I wasn’t planning on it.” Virgil absently dipped a chicken nugget into the pool of ranch on his tray. He really hadn’t thought about prom that much. Plus, the thought of a whole bunch of his peers stuck in one room together, probably grinding with their respective dates, was not a pleasant one.
“Awww, kiddo! You should go! You could come with us; we’re going to grab dinner and everything,” Patton whined.
“I mean, I guess?” Virgil grimaced as he weighed the options. “But don’t I have to rent a tux? I don’t have money for that, especially not after what happened on Monday. I’d be surprised to find my credit card still working with all of that in mind.”
Logan jumped into the conversation. “You would have to rent a tux, yes, but the three of us would be more than happy to help cover your expenses. We value you as a member of our friend group, and we wouldn’t exclude you from something just because you couldn’t afford it.”
Virgil opened his mouth to argue, but Roman interjected, “Dude, seriously. Just let us do this for you. It’ll be fun!”
“Plus, Ro already bought you a ticket,” Logan added and held out a small slip of cardstock. Westview Junior Prom.
Well, Virgil Thomas was now going to prom.
---
“Hey, Pat? Can you help me with my tie?” Virgil called from his bathroom. He had been struggling for the past five minutes trying to figure out the witchcraft behind ties, and he still had zero clue as to what he was supposed to be doing.
“Be right there, kiddo!” It was only a few moments before soft footsteps could be heard approaching, and Patton walked into the bathroom. He’d already mostly finished getting ready sans the fact that his hair was a catastrophic mess. Virgil could guess that he’d been trying to fix it when he’d been called into the other room.
“Alright. Work your magic,” Virgil smirked. In a matter of seconds, Patton had looped and pulled the tie into place, gently tightening it around Virgil’s neck. It was deep purple, picked out specifically because of his dislike of most other colors, and it went very well with the blues and reds of the others’ ties. The tie also matched the freshly dyed purple hair that Roman had forced his three friends to do along with him earlier that afternoon. What an ass.
Virgil admired his reflection. “Dude, what the fuck? How did you do that?” He felt oddly confident in his skin. The same feeling had come about a few times since he’d met Patton, and he had to admit that it was nice. Pat’s happy-go-lucky attitude somehow perfectly meshed with Virgil’s own doom-and-gloom one, forming a hilariously compatible friendship.
Patton smiled and ruffled Virgil hair, much to the other’s dismay. “Now that I helped you, will you please fix my hair.”
“Ugh, fine.”
“I mean it, Virge! Look at this.” Pat ran his fingers through his hair and aggressively tugged when he reached a clump of knots.
“Okay, yeah, we’re fixing that right now.”
---
“Dinner? Really, Patton? You guys couldn’t have told me about this before?” Virgil whined as the four walked into the diner. Yes, a diner, which meant that they were ridiculously overdressed; every other patron was wearing some sort of flannel and jeans combo. It smelled great, sure, but it was so unexpected that he couldn’t help but feel on edge.
“It’s our favorite restaurant,” Logan explained. “We always come here before school events. Roman has coined it as some sort of weird ritual, but it’s mostly tradition.” He led Virgil to the booth that Patton and Roman had already rushed to sit in.
“Plus, we’re friends with the staff,” Ro started with a smile. “You’ll love them; they’re all super nice. Speaking of, here comes Emilia.”
A young lady with brown hair walked up to their table, pulling out her small notepad. “Well, who do we have here? Another addition to our little group of customers of the month for every month since 2014?”
“Hey, Emilia!” Patton said. “This is Virgil; he’s a new friend of ours. He’s been living with me for a few weeks while his dad is out of the country on business.”
“That’s sweet, Patton. Now, what can I get for you guys?”
The three regulars spouted off their orders, clearly versed in what they wanted to eat. Suddenly, all eyes turned to Virgil. He’d barely been able to look over the menu in the time the others had taken to order.
“Uh… I… Um…” He stuttered. Every drop of intelligence that he had in his body was gone in an instant, and he was left a bumbling mess.
“He’ll have a cheeseburger and fries, thanks,” Patton cut in, saving his friend from any further embarrassment.
“Alright! I’ll be back in a few with your food and a pitcher of water!” Emilia gave the boys another smile before she walked back behind the counter to tend to other customers. Almost immediately, Patton and Roman launched themselves into a fast paced discussion about the upcoming festivities. Virgil, unsurprisingly, not only felt anxious, but he also felt like a complete idiot. He was just ordering dinner--there was no reason for him to have been so freaked out.
Virgil felt a hand rest on his left shoulder, turning to see Logan with a worried expression etched on his face. “Are you okay? Do you need to step outside for a moment to regain composure? I’d be willing to go with you if you don’t want to be alone.”
“Uh, no. I’m okay. I’m just a little worried. I mean, this is my first proper school event in, like, ever, and it’s freaking intimidating. You guys go to these things multiple times a year?” Virgil ran his hands through his hair, distressed.
“I understand. When Roman and Patton first made me come with them to homecoming, I was so nervous that I nearly passed out on the way here. Thankfully, I wasn’t driving us everywhere back then otherwise that would’ve ended in a disaster.” Logan gave Virgil a small smile, adding to the tiny--yet slowly growing--list of his outward displays of emotion. Virgil knew Lo wasn’t an emotionless android, but Roman and Patton were so all over the place that someone needed to play the calm and collected one.
“They can be pretty intense,” Virgil commented with a smile at the enthusiastic conversation across the table from them. Both of the teens were grinning and flinging their hands around in wild gestures, barely avoiding impact.
“Yeah, they sure can.” Logan glanced at the other side of the table with a fond expression, but he quickly snapped out of his reverie. “Don’t worry about the dance. Oh, here!” He pulled a pair of earbuds out of his inside jacket pocket and held them out to Virgil. “It gets pretty loud at these dances. I’ve observed that you put on headphones when it gets too noisy, so I brought these just in case you didn’t have your own.”
Virgil pocketed them just as Emilia finally returned with their food. The other three immediately began to dig in while he hesitantly poked at his burger. He picked up a fry and lazily popped it into his mouth.
He picked at his fries for a few minutes, but he eventually worked his way up to taking a bite of his burger. “Holy shit! This stuff is great--wait, why haven’t you taken me here yet?”
“I was trying to ease you into our friend group, so I thought eating dinner at my house would save you some unnecessary interaction,” Pat explained. “Obviously, that was a crime against your taste buds.”
“Of course it was, Patton. Depriving anyone of this blessed food is practically a war crime!” Roman dramatically stated, throwing out his arms. Virgil snorted at the theatrics.
They continued to eat, and all but Virgil had finished their dinner when Emilia returned to their table for dessert orders. Logan ordered a slice of pecan pie for himself, a chocolate lava cake for Roman, a hot fudge sundae for Patton, and a caramel shake for Virgil. Patton, of course, began to spout off a review of all of the desserts they’d ordered, even though Virgil wouldn’t be eating most of them. They all listened politely, not really absorbing any of the information, until their orders arrived. Within a nanosecond, Pat’s face was stuffed full of vanilla ice cream and fudge sauce, easily and efficiently shutting him up.
They ate in near silence, save for the “light” discussion of whether cake or pie was better (Patton eventually had to cut in when Roman threatened Logan with a butterknife). Pat covered the whole bill once they’d finished, claiming “it’s my way of thanking you guys for putting up with my shenanigans.”
---
“Three, two, one!” Roman dramatically counted as he threw the doors to the venue open. Time seemed to freeze as the four friends stepped in; all eyes snapped to them. It had been days since they’d been the topic of gossip at school, but that didn’t mean the student body had lost their interest in the boys.
Roman was at the front of the group, confidently striding to the grand staircase and adjusting his red tie. Logan followed close behind, who looked absolutely stunning in the sharp suit and deep blue tie. Then was Patton, who was marveling at the cascading flower vines and glittering fairy lights. And last but certainly not least…
Virgil. He had a wary smile on his face, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his slacks. The boy made absolutely sure that he didn’t get lost; he kept eyes on Patton the entire time they descended the stairs.
Logan had been right; it was fucking loud. People were screaming left and right, and the music was so loud that Virgil could feel every beat vibrate in his chest. He was lucky that he’d put the earbuds in before they’d arrived, or he never would have stepped inside the venue.
Patton turned around to check on Virgil, obviously sensing the tension building in his friend. He held out his hand for Virgil, who hesitated for just a moment before gently taking it. If people wanted to believe they were together, that wasn’t his problem. It was no skin off his back.
They talked and danced for what felt like hours, and Virgil even joined in on a few of the dances he knew. He was having fun. He smiled and laughed, and it was all genuine! In just a few short weeks, Patton had actually transformed him from a suicidal nightmare into someone who found joy in life. It was a stupid sentiment, and he knew it, but it still brought Virgil a bit of warmth in his chest.
The DJ announced a slow dance. Ugh, how awful. He had nobody to dance with; it was just—
Oh.
Patton tugged Virgil’s hand lightly, pulling their bodies closer together. “Wanna dance? We don’t have to, of course, but it would be a fun first experience for both of us!”
“I—Uh, sure,” Virgil mumbled, trying to hide his gently growing blush. Pat gently guided Virgil’s hands around his neck and placed his own on Virgil’s waist. For the first time, Virgil noticed that he was just an inch or so taller than his friend. Reveling in the warmth and closeness, the two swayed together to the gentle rhythm.
The song ended, and Virgil stepped back, shoving his hands into his pockets. He was extremely grateful that the low light hid his pink cheeks. The screaming resumed as couples broke apart, and early 2000s rap boomed out of the speakers.
And then just like that, Virgil was attacked by anxiety. His hands started shaking, and he rushed away from the small group he was in, mumbling something about going to the bathroom. He calmed slightly when he had made it outside, where he simply collapsed to the ground, but then his panic picked up again when he realized how fucking alone he was always going to be.
Nobody would love the weird guy who rushes out on social gatherings for no fucking reason! Why should they? Virgil had nothing to offer; he was just a guy who had snark to rival Roman and barely two cents to his name.
Tears streamed down his face, running in dark gray streaks as they mixed with his black eye makeup. He could feel his chest heaving, but little air actually made it into his body. Everything was working overtime yet nothing actually happened. Virgil stayed sobbing on the ground. Nothing. Changed.
“Virge, honey? Do you need me to call my mom and have her pick us up?” Patton slowly lowered himself next to Virgil, talking softly so that he woudn’t stir up anything worse.
“N-No! I’ll… I’ll… Fuck!” Virgil cried as he ripped the earbuds out of his ears. He threw the cord a few feet away, instantly regretting it as the sound of shattering plastic reached his ears. He’d have to buy Logan new ones. He couldn’t afford to replace them.
“Goodness gracious, Virgil. It’s okay. I’m going to call Logan, and we’re going to get you out of here—“
“I-I-I don’t… want t-t-to… ruin… night…” Virgil sputtered. He was having trouble pushing the words out; all of them got stuck in his throat.
Patton carefully began to comb through Virgil’s hair with his fingers in an attempt to soothe the attack. “Don’t worry about that, kiddo. There isn’t much more fun to be had, anyway. We still love you—I still love you.”
That’s it. That’s what he felt. Love. He loved Patton.
All of the impulse control he had—though, truthfully, there was very little to begin with—left his body. He reached out and brought Pat’s face to his own, lightly kissing him. Patton stiffened for a fraction of a second before relaxing into the kiss. They were both going to regret this later, but what did that matter in the moment?
next
15 notes · View notes
sonicrainicorn · 5 years
Text
Made of Love, Chapter 21
<< Previous|Next >>
Table of Contents
Ship(s): Logicality, (platonic) Prinxiety
All Characters: Thomas, Virgil, Roman, Logan, Patton, Dr. Picani, Joan, Talyn, and Deceit
Synopsis: Humans Roman and Virgil get wrapped up in some serious magic business without meaning to. Their other companions aren’t exactly as they seem, either. Together they all must defeat a great threat for the safety of humanity.
Chapter Desc.: Virgil is getting really tired of the universe causing problems.
TW: Cursing, alcohol, death mention
Prefer to read it on Ao3? Click here!
“Joan says they have no idea who gave them the info,” Thomas sighed as he plopped down in his seat.
He, Virgil, Roman, and Patton were in the living room trying to solve their big mystery. Logan was still clocked out in the bedroom. His earlier incident didn’t quite ease up as well as the previous ones.
“They never met each other. It was just a written message.”
“Where did the message come from?” Patton asked. “Are they okay? Does Altair know where they are?”
"I don't know. Someone from Talyn's old clan said it was waiting there for them. But Talyn hasn't been there in years." Thomas frowned down at his phone. "Maybe his info is outdated?"
Patton fidgeted with his hands. "I don't know. I'd still be cautious."
"Yeah. They're both keeping their eyes out."
They had no idea what else to do. Without a doubt, Altair created this Figment specifically for them. It was someone Patton and Logan recognized and knew well, while the others have always been Magi they’ve never seen before. It boiled down to three major issues: how did Altair know about Arlene? Who sent them after her? And how did he create such a powerful Figment?
They didn’t have answers for the first two. But Patton figured out the third one.
Figments take up a lot of power and magic. They are a soul forced to recreate their former body without the magic that once held them together. Of course some things are going to be a little off because of that; an essential part of them was missing. But if there’s enough power, then less of them would be missing. Arlene was able to exist as herself because her soul and magic were able to come together almost to completion. There was enough power to put them together. Altair had enough power to put them together. Unfortunately, there was one way he would have gained that jump of strength. Logan’s magic.
There were many, many reasons to why that sucked, and Virgil didn’t want to focus on any of them. He knew plenty of them front and back already. They never left his thoughts since the moment he saw his timeline.
The more magic Logan lost, the more of it went to Altair. If he was able to get all of it, he would be able to get it completely under his control. And if it ever got to that point, there wouldn’t be any more Logan. That would lead to all kinds of bad things.
It couldn’t ever get there.
“What are we supposed to do, then?” Roman asked. “We don’t have anything to go off of, we don’t know where Altair is now -- it’s like we’re back at square one. We just keep getting pushed farther back anytime we make progress.”
“We can’t exactly stop making progress,” Patton said. “Even if we have nowhere to go, we can’t let that be the end. There’s too much at stake.”
Virgil frowned at the coffee table.
“But we have even less time than before,” Thomas replied. “You said it yourself, Logan’s running out of magic. He can’t wait around for Altair to just show up. It took us forever to even get an idea of where he was the first time. How are we supposed to find him now?”
“I…” Patton floundered. Virgil felt a flash of panic -- desperation that was not his own -- enough to make his heart drop before disappearing. Patton clasped his hands together. “I don’t know. I have no idea what to do.”
Neither did anyone else.
Did Virgil accidentally take a nap that wasted most of the day after that? That wasn’t anything you could prove. The answer was yes, though. Yes, he did. It was a complete accident. He decided to go to his room to think about stuff then all of a sudden he was waking up. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), he had a closing shift today. That meant he got to go into work a bit later.
But since he woke up feeling like trash, he decided to stay in bed until the time came to get ready. The first thing he did after was march straight into Roman’s room.
“Ro --” The rest of his name broke off.
Roman sat at his little desk. Fast asleep. His head rested on his folded arms with his laptop on and right in front of him. It displayed a picture opened up in editing software. The picture wasn’t complete yet, but it seemed to have gone through a lengthy process already. Without hesitating, Virgil crept forward and saved the file. Just in case.
He decided to let Roman get the extra sleep. It was obvious he needed it.
So Virgil wandered into the living room to recruit someone else. Patton, Logan, and Thomas were all there. The TV was on, but Patton was the only one watching. Logan sat beside him with his legs pulled up, focusing on his notebook. Thomas was on the floor with a new painting in front of him.
“Roman’s knocked out so I need someone to come to work with me.” He shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets.
“I volunteer,” Thomas muttered from around a paintbrush. He didn’t lift his eyes from the canvas as he used a different sized brush.
“No.” He turned to the other two. “Patton? Logan?”
Logan lifted his head. “What?
Patton smirked and shook his head. “I’ll go with you, Virgil.”
Virgil grabbed Roman’s keys and they were on their way.
When they got there, the bar wasn't very crowded. With it being the middle of the week, only the usuals showed up. Which was fine with Virgil. He knew almost all of them by name and knew they wouldn't be a bother. Half of them didn't even drink -- they just liked to hang out. It led to Virgil conducting a bit of an experiment.
Patton threw back another shot and set the glass down on the counter with the nine others. Virgil waited in anticipation.
“Yeah, I feel nothing.”
Now that just wasn’t fair. “How the hell…?” Virgil examined the shot glasses as if that would somehow provide answers. “I’m -- what witchcraft are you doing and how can I get in on it?”
Patton laughed. “Unless you somehow get healing magic, I don’t think I can help you.” He put his head in his hand. “And for once, it’s less witchcraft, more science.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, alcohol is basically a poison, right? And I have a fast healing body. So poison, plus extra-good liver, equals no effect.” He smiled.
“I’m jealous.” Freaking real-life Captain America here. “How much of that passes on to Picani?”
“Almost none of it, actually.” Patton used his free hand to move a shot glass over to him with a finger. “So Picani can totally get drunk.” He paused. “Don’t ask me how I know that.”
Virgil smirked. As he collected the other shot glasses, someone ran up to the counter and took the empty seat by Patton.
“Virgil. I’ve been thinking about that contract thing you mentioned and I might’ve finally figured it out.” The Theorist’s string of words staggered to a halt when he caught sight of Patton. “You’re… not the one that usually sits there.” He looked almost on guard. “Where’s Roman?”
“Couldn’t make it.” Patton studied him a bit suspiciously.
A gut feeling told Virgil to intervene. “Uh, Patton, this is the Theorist. He’s the one that tried to help us.”
“But led us right into a trap.” Patton’s suspicious gaze didn’t waver.
The Theorist shifted a bit. “Look, I told Virgil this before, but the future isn’t so clear cut all the time. It was a chance.”
“Maybe next time you should consider all possibilities before endangering people,” he lifted his glasses, his brown eyes swirled into that bright blue, “or there’s a chance you might have a big problem on your hands.”
The Theorist almost knocked down the stool in his attempt to scramble away fast enough. He sputtered, pointing a finger at Patton as he put distance between them. “Y-you’re a -- a --”
Patton dropped his glasses in place. He seemed a bit satisfied with the reaction.
Virgil didn’t understand.
“You’re a Machai elf.” He looked horrified at just saying the name. “Why didn’t you tell me you were friends with a Machai elf?” He leaned over the bar to hiss at Virgil.
“You never asked,” was Virgil’s automatic response. “What’s the big deal? I thought you saw my timeline.”
“I saw glimpses I didn’t pick out any details.” He eyed Patton worriedly.
Fair enough. “Well, why does Patton being a Machai elf or whatever make any difference?” He continued his clean up of the shot glasses.
The Theorist gawked at him like he was an idiot. “Do you have any idea what a Machai elf is?” He continued to be flabbergasted after receiving a deadpan expression from Virgil. “Machai elves are some of the deadliest creatures of the magic world. They’re ruthless and intimidating. They don’t back down from a fight and they're trained to kill from birth. They're one of the most notorious elf tribes, how can you not know this?"
Virgil shrugged.
"Ugh, humans. You never bother to ask important questions." He sent another weary glance Patton's way. "I've never heard of one straying away from the tribe, though. Are you the only one?"
Patton scowled. "We're not going to get into that."
The Theorist shut his mouth.
Holy shit. Talk about impressive. "So what's the reason you're here? Other than being afraid of puffball Patton over there."
The Theorist's face twisted at 'puffball' but continued regardless. "Well between your anger issues and his ability to rip out my spine like a Mortal Kombat finisher, I don't know how eager I am to say anything anymore."
"Oh, come on," Patton said, voice dripping with faux sweetness. "I'm not going to rip out your spine. There are less messy ways of getting rid of you."
"Patton." Virgil couldn't believe he had to use a parent voice on Patton of all people.
"I'm kidding. A bit."
Virgil rolled his eyes. "Ignore him." He turned all his attention to the Theorist. "He honestly isn't going to do anything to you. Patton's one of the nicest people I know."
The Theorist didn't seem too sure about that.
“If it makes you feel any better, I learned my lesson from last time. I won’t be trying to stab you again anytime soon.”
Patton stared at him in disbelief. “You what?”
“Fine.” The Theorist took a seat but made sure there was enough space between him and Patton. “But the minute any of that changes, I’m running right out of here.”
Virgil rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Just get on with it.”
“So the contract. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since you rather rudely accused me of making it --” he sent a look that Virgil ignored -- “and I managed to narrow it down to a few things. The word ‘contract’ is actually important here. You called it a contract. You didn’t say deal or bargain, you said contract. That helps a lot. It eliminates several creatures like imps and faeries -- which leaves us with things that are capable of creating contracts. That’s obviously the more human things like witches, but it’s also less human things. Things like demons, shadowlings, boogeymen --”
“Boogeyman.” Virgil didn’t hesitate. “It was a boogeyman.”
The Theorist faltered for a moment. “Okay. That makes things a bit more complicated.” He tapped his fingers against the countertop. “Boogeymen are difficult creatures, and every culture has its own interpretation for what they do. Sometimes they’re even considered demons.” His fingers stopped. “But they all have one thing in common. They prey on fear -- they can create it. Depending on the variation, they can even manifest that fear and take it with them.”
“But why?” Patton asked with full sincerity. “Why would -- what does this have to do with a contract?”
“He didn’t want to be there,” Virgil explained. “He said he was bound by a contract.”
“And that wasn’t a figure of speech,” The Theorist continued. “To make a contract with a boogeyman is to literally bind them to you. It makes the contract a million times more effective because the boogeyman won’t be freed unless they complete it. And if you’re going to try to get rid of someone -- and you’re insane enough -- why not make a contract with a boogeyman? I mean, at their core, boogeymen are basically ideas.”
Virgil’s throat closed up. “It’s impossible to kill an idea.” He didn’t die. He didn’t die. He didn’t die. He didn’t die.
“Or at least, the manifestation of an idea is very hard to get rid of. And I think we might all know of someone who’s willing to literally bind a malevolent creature to do his dirty work.” The Theorist stirred a bit in his seat. “And for once, that’s not a theory.”
Patton frowned.
“What would Altair need fears for?” He got away. Virgil let him get away. He fucking let Anxiety complete his contract.
"Just think about it. If you're after someone, you'd want to use their greatest weakness against them. What if you knew what that was? What if you knew what could bring them to their knees -- something they wouldn't win against? Something that strikes them down to their very core? That would be useful, wouldn't it?"
A bit too useful.
The Theorist noticed the expressions on both men’s faces and cleared his throat. “Uh, do with that information as you wish. Unless you need something else, I’m going to get out of here.” He prepared to stand up.
Something switched in Virgil’s brain. “Hypothetically --” he made sure not to look at Patton -- “if someone who wasn’t meant to see into time, uh, happened to see into time, how long would side effects last? If any.”
“Hypothetically --” the Theorist glanced between Patton and Virgil, somehow seeming to put the pieces together -- “that’s an unknown factor. Seers don’t usually force that ability onto someone as it usually results in, uh, bad things. Like losing your mind type of bad things.” Comforting. “But if I had to guess, if someone was capable of handling it, they might get vivid visions of whatever timeline they saw lasting between a few days to a couple of weeks. Though, once again, there’s not much information on it.”
“Alright. That’s an interesting concept.”
“I’d say so,” Patton muttered as he eyed Virgil. He then turned his eyes away and onto the Theorist. “So you’re a Seer, then?”
The Theorist sat up straight. “Uh, yes.”
“Care to tell me my future?”
“Oh, uh,” he shared an uncertain glance with Virgil. “Okay. If you’re sure about it.” He held his hands out, palms up.
Patton placed his hands on top. “I’m fairly certain.”
Virgil tried to pretend he had better things to do while that went on. He didn’t want to draw any attention to them by standing there and staring. What brought him back was the Theorist yanking his hands away as if he had been burned.
He failed to cover up such a reaction. “Is there a specific question you want to be answered?”
Patton clasped his hands together and placed them on his lap. “What’s the ratio of bad to good?”
“Normally, I’d say that’s relative.” He delayed his next sentence. “But I get the feeling I know how you'd perceive it so I'd say it’s mostly bad.”
“What happens in the good parts?”
Once again, he hesitated, but for a different reason. He took a glance around the bar before grabbing the leftover shot glass and turning it over, making the bottom the top. He waved his hands over it. Little moving pictures projected on all sides of the glass. A makeshift crystal ball. "You get a normal life." He placed his hands on the counter. "There will be ups and downs, but you get through all of them. It was a little tricky to see since you spend most of your time as a fusion, but getting passed this stretch of hardships will lead to some of the best moments of your life. You might even consider it a happy ending."
Patton stared at the glass. The little pictures floated around of scenes that had yet to come. A majority of them had Picani rather than Patton himself. "And what of the bad?"
The Theorist's fingers curled up. He swallowed thickly and focused on the glass rather than anyone else.
Virgil put his hand over it. The happy images faded. "I don't think we need to focus on that," he whispered. He knew a lot about those bad timelines. It wasn't anything Patton should see. Especially since in many of them, Logan died in his arms.
Patton's brows knitted together.
"He might be right." The Theorist pulled himself together. "Focusing on the bad parts of a possible timeline tend to create a self-fulfilling prophecy." He fidgeted. “Virgil, can I talk to you outside for a moment?”
“Uh.” Virgil did his best to gauge how much of an effect his absence would have. Eh, it might be fine. “Sure.”
They left a confused Patton to try to figure out the pieces himself.
The moment they stepped outside, the Theorist heaved a sigh as if he had been forced to hold his breath. “And that is why I try not to do future readings anymore.” He dragged his hands down his face. “I’ve never seen a future so full of despair. All his timelines are so drastically different! I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“What d’you mean?” Virgil didn’t like how it sounded.
“I mean, normally, someone’s timelines don’t have such intense extremes. Their future is up to them to choose and interpret. Sometimes a minor inconvenience is what they see as devastating. Sometimes finding a dollar on the floor in two months is the best thing to happen to them. That’s all mundane stuff -- stuff I usually see out of many people.” He looked down at his hands and frowned. “All of the bad timelines were so short. If we continue to follow a bad path, he has what -- a few weeks left at most? But in all the good timelines he goes on to be thousands of years old. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“How would that even happen?”
“Because he doesn’t have a choice,” the Theorist snapped.
Virgil’s back straightened, caught completely off-guard by the harsh tone.
A slow realization crossed the Theorist’s face. He sighed and blinked to get rid of the tears in his eyes. “Virgil,” despite speaking to him, he didn’t lift his eyes, “I’ve been able to see into time since I was five. I’m almost five hundred years old now, and I’ve seen some pretty awful things come to fruition -- things I could’ve stopped.” He pressed his back against the wall of the building. “I used to think that time was a straight line. I thought it was something that couldn’t waver from its path. But that’s not true.” He looked right at Virgil. “The future can be bent in any shape you make of it. That’s the beauty of free will. Good and bad futures are interchangeable and any bend you make can bridge the gap between the two.
“But Patton doesn’t have that option. His future is affected by the decisions of others. Where we are now, in this current mess of a timeline, he can’t affect his own future. Not unless we get out of it. But he has no way of getting out of it himself. And that just isn’t fair, is it?” He held such a genuine sincerity in his voice that Virgil wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “Promise me you’ll do whatever you can to fix this. I’ll try to help out to the best of my ability, but ultimately it’ll come down to you. You, Roman, and Thomas are the only ones who’ll be there to change anything. Promise you’ll try to do something.”
“I…” That was a rather tall order. The answer was obvious, however. “I promise.”
Virgil didn’t want to talk about the future for the rest of the night.
He would have gotten through with it if it wasn’t for Patton.
The bar closed. They were the only people in the building. Virgil had a few things left to clean up before they could go. He tried to insist that Patton didn’t need to help, but of course, it didn’t work. It always went faster with two people, anyway. It was as they cleaned that Patton decided to bring up a certain topic for discussion.
“Hypothetically --” Virgil’s blood immediately ran cold -- “if someone were to see into time when they weren’t supposed to, they’d tell their friends, right?” Patton stopped and stared right at him. Somehow, it seemed more like a demand than a question. Everything in his expression and posture said that he knew.
Virgil couldn’t face him. Like a kid that got caught in a lie. “If we’re purely speaking in hypotheticals here, I’d think maybe that person wouldn’t want to say anything about it. Because they wouldn’t want their friends to have that burden.”
“Burdens shouldn’t be carried alone.” With that finalizing statement, he carried on with what he was doing.
Oh, man. Come on! That wasn’t fair. He made it sound so easy. And why the hell did he start sounding so serious today? Throughout the whole exchange with the Theorist, he didn't sound very Patton. It was kinda weird. Virgil decided to do what he did best; deflect the situation. “So, uh, was what the Theorist said true?” He heard Patton stop moving. “About what you are, I mean.”
“You mean how the Machai are emotionless, ruthless creatures?”
“Yeah -- emotionless?” Virgil whipped his head around to look at him.
It seemed that particular statement went ignored. “Most of it was true. The Machai are warriors. I’ve known how to handle a weapon for almost as long as I could walk. I was raised to stay with the tribe -- that all outsiders are bad." He leaned against the edge of a table. "There’s a lot of fighting and killing, and just flat out messy ways of dealing with stuff. But I-I don’t do that anymore. That’s part of the reason I left.”
Well, he didn’t have enough time to unpack all of that. “What’s another part?”
Patton’s whole demeanor changed. His eyes brightened like a warm fire had been lit in them. A soft smile slid onto his face. “Love.”
(Next)
7 notes · View notes
charlieism · 7 years
Text
Of Ink Stains and Love Notes
Tumblr media
So I’m a few days late in posting this but!! I hit 400 followers, what the heck?? Thank you so much!! I decided to write a pretty long (around 5000 words), fluffy fic to celebrate haha. It’s a Prinxiety one, of course :) thanks to @use-it-ironically for letting me yell ideas at them until I get inspired and to @princeyandanxiety for telling me to write it because otherwise I would still be procrastinating rn. Also tagging @lekawaiimelon and @mylasagnaisraw :)
Everyone has a soulmate. Almost everyone finds their soulmate and forms a relationship with them, be it romantic or platonic. Some people have the link, an anomaly in which anything that is written, drawn, or doodled onto one person's skin will appear on their soulmate's skin, in the exact same place. Roman has the link.
Or at least, he likes to believe he does.
Everyone has a soulmate. Almost everyone finds their soulmate and forms a relationship with them, be it romantic or platonic. Some people have the link, an anomaly in which anything that is written, drawn, or doodled onto one person's skin will appear on their soulmate's skin, in the exact same place. Roman has the link.
Or at least, he likes to believe he does.
****
To be honest, he isn't really sure. He imagines that he is one of the special people, one with the strongest bond to his soulmate. To the person he is destined for, to love and cherish forever. The one who Roman will 'just click with.' The one who will love him and understand him, the one Roman is perfect for. What a glorious idea! The idea of a soulmate is something Roman has fantasised about forever. He's tried to imagine what his soulmate will look like, but it always changes. He's dreamed of their meeting, he's imagined the first time his soulmate's writing will appear on his skin, he's dreamt about the feeling of meeting someone who's soul, who's very being is so perfectly suited for Roman, and he is always filled with a feeling of awe. That one day, he will meet someone who he is perfect for.
Only problem is, it can't come quick enough.
****
Roman has been writing and drawing on himself since as long as he was able. At the beginning, before he knew how to read or write, before he knew how to draw so you could decipher what the picture showed, he would just grab marker pens of pretty colours and scribble up and down his arms in lines and patterns.
No new ones ever showed up.
Then, when he learnt to read and write, he began by writing tiny little things, like 'hi' or 'I'm Roman', then went on to write long messages or start conversations that nobody ever replied to.
And when he learned to draw, well, it fast became one of his favourite things to do. To pick the colours he knew went well together, to decide what pattern or drawing he wanted to create, to press the cool pen tip to his skin and let the lines flow freely, springing from his imagination onto his skin (and hopefully somebody else's skin too.)
And for years, nobody replied. No new writing appeared on his skin, nobody's handwriting but his own, nobody's artistic creations and doodles but the ones he drew himself. But Roman never let it get him down; there were stories everywhere about soulmates who didn't meet for years, about links that didn't start up for a long time. It was common knowledge that no link started from birth; many took years to activate. Roman just couldn't wait! He wanted to feel the tingle of somebody else's drawings coming through to him. He wanted to see the writing appear. It simply couldn't come quick enough.
****
A few years on, and Roman had a routine. He would wake up, eat breakfast, get ready for the day, snatch up a pen and doodle something quick on his wrist. Be it a 'Hello!' or a 'Good morning!" Or simply a quick drawing of a flower, he never failed to add something daily. And it wasn't that he had lost hope, no, Roman would never do that. It wasn't that he though he didn't have a link; he did! He knew he did. He couldn't explain it, he could just feel it. It was simply that his soulmate had never replied, that their link hadn't started yet, so he didn't pay much attention to the quick drawing of a crown he had just doodled. He didn't think the link would be activated suddenly, and so his soulmate was at the back of his mind.
****
Later in the day, Roman was lying in the park with his best friend Patton. Patton, aka Morality, aka Dad, (he was the Dad friend and had an unabashed love of dad jokes) was sitting in the shade of a tree as the hot beams of sunlight shone down onto the ground. He was trying to make the longest daisy chain ever, and then trying to make it a necklace for Roman. Roman was lying on his stomach, kicking his legs absently, sketching in his sketchbook. He was trying to draw a rose (how terribly cliche, he knows), but his right arm had started itching a few minutes ago and it was driving him mad. It was like a strangely strong mix of itching, and tingling. Like a frustrating case of pins and needles. Roman was determinedly trying to ignore it, but the tingling was annoyingly persistent, and finally with an agitated groan Prince shot his hand out and rubbed his wrist, glaring and frowning in annoyance. When he lifted his hand away and his eyes focused on the wrist, however, Roman's eyes opened comically wide and he gasped in shock, springing backwards into the grass and cradling his arm, staring at it in amazement. For underneath his hastily sketched crown, a tiny drawing of a pair of headphones was slowly appearing on his skin, fading up from nowhere.
****
As soon as Roman glanced at the drawing, the frustrating itching went away and left only a pleasant, magical tingling.
"Holy shit. Holy shit!" He yelped, the full realisation of what just happened hitting him. "P-Patotn! I knew it! I- I knew it! It happened! It's happening! I have it, I knew it! There's someone for me, it's real, it's happening!" He rambled, yelling for his best friend, who immediately scrambled towards Roman. He looked panicked; apparently Roman wasn't doing a very good job of describing what had just taken place.
"Are you okay? Princey? What's wrong?" He asked, eyes full of concern through his glasses. Roman stared in awe at the small doodle scrawled upon his arm. It was evidently just that: a doodle. An absent drawing, right underneath Roman's crown, which meant that Roman's drawing probably hadn't transferred over. So what would he say? What was the first thing on wrote to their soulmate? Or did he just draw? What did he do? Roman couldn't remember a single thing that he had daydreamed about. So, casting one more look to his arm, he thrust it out and presented the drawing to Patton. Patton inspected his friend's arm, then his eyes flew wide open.
"Oh! You didn't draw this! Oh my goodness, Roman, your soulmate!" He squealed, eyes lighting up in excitement. "What are you going to say?" Patton gasped. Roman shrugged helplessly at him.
"I don't know!" He wailed. "They're my soulmate, the one person I'm destined for! It has to be perfect, but I don't know what to do!" He yelled.
"Ok, ok, don't worry! Anything you write will be perfect! Like it's destined to be. Go ahead, just write something, Prince!" Patton urged. Prince took a deep breath.
"Okay. Okay, thanks Morality. Okay." He grasped his black felt, and had a mind blank. He had no idea what he was going to do. So he started off easy.
****
Roman pressed the cool tip of the pen to the base of the crown he had drawn, and traced it carefully. When the crown had a perfect other layer of ink upon it, he wrote a single hesitant message. Prince guessed he was still in shock. In his elegant, loopy handwriting Roman wrote, 'Oh my goodness, I suppose we're soulmates. Hi.' He and Morality waited with bated breaths for the reply, and after a minute quick words appeared atop Prince's skin. The handwriting was small and pretty messy, the angles of letters sharp.
'Holy shit, you're my soulmate. I have the link. Hi.' Roman no longer had a filter, he was just saying the first thing that came to his mind as he traced the sentence scrawled upon his wrist by another hand.
"Eloquent." He mumbled absently. Patton laughed.
"Ask his name, lover boy." He teased. Roman blinked.
"Oh! Of course!" He exclaimed, fumbling for his pen. 'It's nice to finally meet you! (Well, write to you, I suppose.) My name is Roman. Who are you?'
The reply came quickly. 'You can call me Anx. So, Roman, now that we're soulmates I suppose we should know a bit about each other."
And thus it began.
****
The conversation they had, scrawled along arms until there remained no room, letters dropped across knees and sentences rubbed off to make room for new ones. They talked until the sun began to set, at which point Roman was lying with his head in Patton's lap, Morality weaving daisies into his hair and watching the conversation between Roman and Anx flow. They learnt that Anx was a boy, ever so slightly younger than Roman, complete with quick wit and scathing sarcasm, yet undertones of friendliness. Eventually Morality had to snap Prince back to reality.
"Listen, Ro, you gotta go home, it's getting late."
"No, I'm talking to Anx! My soulmate!" Roman sighed dreamily.
"I know, Princey, but why don't you just swap phone numbers? You've run out of places to write on anyway." Patton offered, making Roman jump up in excitement.
"Of course! Thank you, Mo!" He beamed, before hastily writing his phone number in large, loopy letters on his already ink stained skin. Moments later a scribbled number appeared underneath it, followed by a winking face. Prince blushed and Patton cooed teasingly at him.
Later that night, Prince was standing under the warm water spray of his shower, watching sadly as the ink rinsed off his skin and swirled down the drains in pale clouds of black and blue. His first conversation, his first few hours talking with his soulmate, the first few precious facts he now knew about Anx, the beginnings of Roman's crush, gone with the water. It was depressing and suddenly Prince was full of dismay and sadness.
Until, when he stepped out of the shower and got dressed into his pyjamas, his phone dinged. And when he checked it, Anxiety's phone number flashed on the screen. It had only been about half an hour since they talked last, but the thought that Anxiety wanted to talk to him already made Roman's heart flutter.
Heya, Princey. Was the simple message.
Roman smiled.
****
After that, he and Anxiety talked daily, be it by texting or writing. Sometimes they simply drew and smiled at the now familiar tingling sensation. By now, they were dating, even though they hadn't actually met each other yet. It was just the obvious option; they had both developed crushes straight away, and the feelings only bloomed and developed and flowered into something stronger as time went on. Roman, being the romantic sap he was, had been writing Anxiety love letters and notes every morning since they had started dating. Today's one was silly and cheesy and Prince was smiling as he wrote it.
'Anxiety, my love, my sunshine, my chemically imbalanced romance, my darkly dressed wonder, my Disney prince, my angel, you're looking adorable today! You look so cute, especially stunning, absolutely ravishing, you beautiful, magnificent creature. Also, don't forget I love you!' He could practically see Anx's blush (although he'd never actually seen Anxiety; he was too shy and, well, anxious to send a selfie, But that was okay, Roman didn't care about what Anx looked like. He already loved him.) A moment later, the words faded a bit like Anx had halfheartedly attempted to rub them off. Prince grinned.
Shut up, you idiot. Was Anxiety's reply. And then, scrawled underneath that, I love you too. It was a Saturday, so Roman just lounged around the house, talking to his soulmate for a bit (sometimes he still couldn't believe he was lucky enough to have Anxiety as his soulmate.)
It was barely an hour later, when Anxiety sent him a short message so abruptly and unexpectedly that it made Roman fall off the couch.
I want to meet you.
****
He stared at the message in shock, excitement and happiness bubbling up and surging through him, making a beaming smile leap out onto Roman's face. He had been waiting for this! He'd been wanting to meet Anxiety for weeks, but he hadn't wanted to pressure him into anything's he wasn't comfortable with. And now Anxiety finally trusted Prince enough to meet him! Yes! When he realised he still had to reply, he scrambled desperately for the pen he had accidentally thrown at the wall as he fell. He basically jammed the marker against his skin, writing the words as fast as humanely possible.
Oh my goodness are you being serious??? Yesyesyes!!!!I I would love to meet you in real life!!! Glancing back over the extreme reaction, Roman was suddenly worried he'd overwhelmed Anxiety. Thankfully, his boyfriend's reply came quick.
'Lol calm down pretty boy. Um so hey if we're doing this, I remember we talked about this place a while ago, there's that park a while away from both of our houses?' And then 'btw, im really excited too.'
That made Roman smile fondly at his own wrist. But yes, he knew the park. It had been the source of some of their conversations, being the place that Prince was in when the link started working and the place Anx used to love going to as a kid. It would be the perfect place to meet; it was now officially Prince's dream meeting spot.
It didn't take long for them to organise the meeting, The park was pretty close to both of their houses, and it wasn't too big, which meant they should be able to find each other pretty easily. Now, Roman had to get ready!
****
He put a simple white shirt on and his favourite white, red and gold jacket, and dark skinny jeans (that he knew made his legs looks great). He styled his hair until it was impeccable and checked his face in the mirror, and sprayed some deodorant on himself. Then he took a few deep breaths while looking in the mirror, gave himself a quick pep talk because jeez, he was about to meet his actual soulmate! And then, before he knew it, Roman was walking out his door and down the road.
****
When Prince arrived at the park, he looked around but couldn't see anyone who looked his age. There only seemed to be adults or little kids milling about. Sighing, a bundle of nerves still heavy in his chest and weaving through his ribs, Roman decided to make his way to the tree where he first started talking to Anxiety. It was one of the biggest trees in the park, its sturdy, sweeping branches looping and twisting around each other, the bright emerald leaves fluttering and swaying in the wind, their glossiness reflecting the bright sunlight that shone down upon the earth. Prince wandered up to it, lost in his thoughts and fantasies and wondering about how he was finally going to meet Anxiety!! He was going to meet his soulmate!! That was both exciting and terrifying. He absently lay his hand on the tree trunk, the familiar bark comforting underneath his fingers. He couldn't say how long he lingered there, lost in his own mind, until an oh-so-familiar tingling sensation began emanating from his wrist.
Behind you
****
Anxiety was feeling anxious, but that was only to be expected. He was also more excited than he had ever been before He was about to meet his real life, honest to god, actual soulmate! The guy he'd been talking to for weeks, the one he'd been dating without ever actually seeing his face.
Heck, how was he going to know who Roman was? He had no idea what he looked liked!
Wait, all the cheesy movies said there was some kind of pull, maybe that was a real thing, maybe it would lead him to Prince.
Or maybe it wouldn't.
Maybe he would just see someone with the same writing as him, that way he would know exactly who Roman was!
Or maybe he would never find Roman, ever. Even thought that was incredibly unrealistic as they could just arrange another place to meet. In the end Anx decided to try to ignore the nervousness and focus on his excitement. Even though he'd never actually seen Prince, and Prince hadn't seen him, Anxiety's crush on the dramatic boy was stronger than anything else he'd ever felt. It was almost scary, but it was also feeding a fire of excitement in him with every step closer he took to the park. He was about to meet Roman!
When Anxiety arrived in the park, he was suddenly flooded with emotions and memories from his childhood. He used to come to this park all the time; he had loved to roll down the hills and throw sticks into the creeks and climb the trees. There had always been one tree in particular that was his favourite; it was one of the tallest in the park, and its branches curved and were low enough to clamber upon and sit on. Anxiety took a quick look around him, in case he suddenly saw his soulmate, but he felt nothing. There were only a few adults stretching in the bright sunshine and some kids running around and laughing.
Well, he had no better plan. He might as well head to his favourite tree.
****
Anxiety climbed up the grassy hill the tree grew on top of, steadily ignoring the heat beating down on him. He looked good in black, so he was willing to suffer. He was strangely excited about going to the tree, but he pinned it down to just being happy about childhood memories. Running a hand through his dark floppy hair, Anxiety took the last step up the hill and looked towards the tree, then froze.
A guy was leaning against the tree, one hand resting on the bark, his back to Anxiety. He looked like he was staring off into space, daydreaming. He was tall and lean, but looked strong at the same time. The dark jeans he was wearing made this guy's legs look great. He was wearing a white, red and gold jacket, and had neat, light brown hair. Anxiety couldn't see his face, but just judging from the back of him he was attractive. Like, really fricking hot.
And then Anxiety saw the back of the man's hand.
****
Drawn on the back was a large, elegant, looping infinity sign that merged seamlessly with Roman's loopy handwriting, spelling out the word love then flowing back into the infinity sign. The word love then had a thin line crossed though it, with the word pizza written in a messy scrawl underneath. Anxiety knew all the details about the silly little drawing, because he had the same thing formed on his own hand.
Which meant... that this was Roman.
Holy shit.
Holy shit!
This guy was his soulmate?? This was Roman?? He was Anxiety's boyfriend?? How the fuck had Anxiety gotten so lucky? What kind of flaw in the universe's system had gifted him with this guy? He didn't really know what to do. He didn't know what he wanted to say.
So he decided not to say anything, and to simply write. So he took the pen out of his hoodie pocket, looked for a space between the drawings and words and ink stains that already dotted his skin, and wrote Behind you.
Anxiety watched nervously as the ink dried on his skin, and watched the words fade up onto Roman's own skin. It was so strange to see something that he wrote appear on someone else's skin. Anx was full of apprehension as he watched Prince look at his arm in surprise, then stiffen.
Then slowly, slowly, Roman turned around.
All the breath whooshed out of Anxiety's lungs as their eyes met.
****
Behind you. Two words, that probably shouldn't hold so much meaning. How could two words possibly hold how important the meaning behind them was? How could two small words create so much feeling and emotion within Roman?
Behind you. He was about to see Anxiety, he was about to see his soulmate for the first time. All he had to do was turn around.
He was suddenly full of nerves, but he had to face his fear. There was no use waiting any longer! So Roman turned around, looked behind him, saw his soulmate, and promptly forgot how to breathe.
****
Eyes. The first thing he noticed were Anxiety's eyes; they were wide and stunned, their colour a beautiful hazel. It was an delightful swirl of shining emerald green and deep brown, complete with flecks of gold twinkling in the sunlight. They were rimmed in expertly applied dark eyeliner, that brought out the colour beautifully.
The next thing he noticed was, well, everything. Anxiety had skin like snow, clear and pale, and he had a light dusting of cute little freckles. His hair was a brown so dark it was almost black, and it flopped over Anxiety's face and eyes slightly. It looked so soft and smooth that Roman had the sudden urge to run his hands through it. He was wearing a large, soft looking hoodie and black jeans, and he was shorter than Prince! It was adorable! Anxiety in general was adorable. And beautiful. And hot. And exquisite and amazing and really good looking and heavenly and stunning and holy shit how did Roman get so lucky?! He must have been blessed.
Roman found himself moving closer, steps clumsy and stunned. Prince knew his expression was probably comical, he could imagine that it was full of awe and adoration and shock. Prince was relieved to see that Anxiety was drifting towards him too, his expression equally as awe filled and stunned, hazel eyes wide.
This was Roman's soulmate! And he was more perfect than he could have ever imagined.
****
Anxiety was in awe. This was his soulmate! He just wanted to stand there and gaze at Roman forever.
His boyfriend's skin was smooth and tanned, and was Roman blushing slightly? There was a dusting of pale pink adorning Prince's face as he stared at Anxiety. And holy shit, that was probably the most adorable thing Anx had ever seen. Wait, no, Roman in general was the most adorable/hot/attractive thing Anxiety had ever laid eyes upon.
His eyes were a warm chocolate colour, that shone with kindness. Prince's twinkled and sparkled in the light, and Anxiety felt like he could gaze into them all day. Roman's hair was a light, chestnut brown, styled immaculately bar a few fluffy strands being ruffled by the breeze. He was tall, taller than Anxiety, and slim, but still muscular. His jeans clung to his legs and showed them off in the best way possible, and he was wearing a simple white shirt underneath the soft looking jacket. Suddenly Roman was far closer to him, and Anxiety realised they had both been stumbling closer to each other, and then they were meeting in the middle and holy shit this was his soulmate.
****
Anxiety's breath caught in his throat as he and Roman stared at each other, drinking each other in, their expressions mirroring each other in terms of awe, affection and shock. Then Roman blinked and slowly his hand came up to cup Anxiety's face. The touch was gentle and fleeting, light as a feather.
"I know I said you were magnificent before, but... you truly do exceed even my expectations. You're exquisite. More stunning than I ever imagined, than I ever dreamed you would be." Roman breathed, eyes roaming over Anxiety's face. Anx could feel himself blushing, but this was the first time he had heard Prince's voice, and he could listen to it all day. It was velvety smooth, rolling and eloquent, and Anxiety's new favourite sound.
"I-I'm not that cute." He automatically stammered. Roman looked genuinely shocked.
"Nonsense! You're the most beautiful human I've ever seen. You're truly gorgeous." There was so much sincerity in his words it took Anxiety's breath away. Again. He didn't know what to say, he wasn't good with words, not like Prince was.
"You're not bad yourself." Was the first thing that came to his mind, and therefore the first thing he said. "Wait, no, scrap that. You're so fucking good looking, what the heck?" Anxiety's hands absently reached up and gently touched Roman's hair. It was really soft. Roman blushed and smiled.
"Glad you like what you see." Anxiety rolled his eyes, but Prince was still smiling and now he was too.
"Lucky you, I really do." He giggled. Roman's smile got even brighter, and it was adorable, and suddenly Anxiety was looping his arms around Prince's neck and pulling him into a crushing hug because he just- he needed to be closer to his soulmate. The urge was irresistible.
****
Roman responded almost immediately, his arms wrapping around Anxiety's waist and pulling him closer, and Anxiety had his head buried in the crook of Prince's neck and Roman's chin was resting on top of Anx's head and he felt so safe and happy and something else, a feeling that was indescribable. It was like there had been a piece of Anxiety missing all his life and now he finally had it, like the last piece of a jigsaw had just been fitted in, like something clicked inside him and suddenly Anxiety was so happy he could barely contain it. Roman was warm and strong, and his jacket was soft, and he smelt really nice, like vanilla and deodorant and it was all so perfect it was making Anxiety's head spin. Their chests were pressed tightly together, and Anxiety felt Roman relax completely against him. He subconsciously did the same, the bubbly feeling of bliss as he hugged his soulmate residing slightly and leaving him smiling like an idiot against Prince's shoulder.
****
Eventually they separated, standing back and smiling at each other, before deciding to leave the park and wader around the city. They walked around holding hands all day, their little adventures including showing each other their favourite places (the library, the theatre, that one cafe), exchanging stories and facts, talking about their friends Logan and Patton, Prince buying them both ice cream and taking countless cute, cheesy, couple-y selfies and posting them on every social media he owned. Patton, of course, liked and screamed about every single picture.
****
However, every day has to come to an end. So as the sun began to sink down below the horizon, and the flames of sunset's light grew and shone in bright colours through the sky, illuminating clouds and painting the sky a vibrant masterpiece, Roman and Anx made their way back to the park they met in. They walked so close together their shoulders bumped, hands held tightly and fingers laced together. They were silent for the first time all day, each enjoying their soulmate's presence for the last few moments that day. Each slowly growing sadder as they realised they had to part ways again soon. When they reached the park, they each lingered and held hands for a while longer, looking at each other sadly. Eventually Anxiety couldn't bear the silence anymore, but he didn't know what he wanted to say, and he didn't want to leave. What did he want to do?
"Do you wanna climb the tree?"
****
Roman looked at Anxiety in confusion, which quickly cleared up when Anxiety gestured with a tilt of his head towards the centre of the park. Prince grinned.
"Sure, I did that all the time when I was a kid."
"So did I! Let's go, Pretty Boy." Anxiety took off, full of childlike excitement again. Roman laughed and chased after him, and together they ran up the hill towards the tree.
"Hey, the branches are pretty high up. Need a boost, shorty?" Roman teased. Anxiety scowled at him.
"Haha, very funny, asshat." Anxiety shot back. Roman placed his hand over his heart in mock offence.
"Rude peasant." He grinned, then moved around Anxiety to climb up the first few branches. He found a branch that dipped in the middle to make the perfect place to sit in, and a second later Anxiety was clambering up and sitting next to him, pressing close to his side. Roman wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gazed out of the tree around the park. The view was great, as they were on the top of a hill. They could see to the very edges of the park, and could see all the leaves of every tree swishing in the gentle breeze. The sun was about to set, and he was sitting in a tree with his soulmate, with Anx, and everything seemed perfect. Roman turned his head to look at his boyfriend, only to see that Anxiety was already gazing at him. Anx looked away when Prince caught him staring, but there was already a tiny, pleased smile dancing across Roman's lips.
"C'mon, we should go soon." Anxiety mumbled after a minute, and began to slide down to the ground. Roman followed just a second later. He jumped down and landed on the soft green grass, running a hand through his hair absently. When he looked up again, however, he was struck breathless again.
The sun was setting, casting beams of golden, orange and pink light to Earth. The rays of light illuminated Anxiety's face like a halo, managing to make him look even more like a true piece of art. He was beautiful, and Roman couldn't stop staring. Eventually Anxiety realised Prince wasn't moving and turned, hazel eyes puzzled, hand brushing his dark hair out of his eyes.
"Penny for your thoughts?" He joked.
"I was just thinking that you look really nice." Roman said flippantly, making a pretty pink blush appear around Anxiety's freckles, very noticeable against his pale skin. "And that I really want to kiss you right now." He added shyly. This made Anxiety's head jerk up, and his eyes widen. But then he relaxed, smiled at his soulmate, and said, "Then do it."
****
So as the sun began to sink down below the horizon, and the flames of sunset's light grew and shone in bright colours through the sky, illuminating clouds and painting the sky a vibrant masterpiece, Roman slowly leaned in. He cupped his boyfriend's face shyly, eyes fluttering shut, and gently kissed Anxiety. Anxiety kissed back immediately, equally as gently, and the indescribable feeling of happiness came back. The kiss was sweet and slow, innocent and happy, a perfect first kiss. When they pulled apart the two boyfriends hugged again, Anxiety being short enough to simply bury his face and smile in Prince's shoulder. Roman wrapped his arms around his soulmate's waist, and they stood in the sunset for a minute longer, softly swaying back and forth in peaceful silence, enjoying the sunset and their soulmate's presence. And when they finally parted ways again, both heading to the own homes, it was with a smile on their faces, a pen in their hands, and ink stains littering their skin.
346 notes · View notes