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“What was your first kiss like?” Roman asks, skipping a stone across the pond. It skips four times, not an all time best, but not too shabby either.
“Ha ha, very funny Princey,” Virgil snarks back, throwing his own stone. It plops into the water, not skipping even once.
The two are standing on a small, pebbly shore of a tranquil pond in the imagination. Because Roman can make whatever he likes here, there are the perfect amount of stones just the right size for skipping. You still have to take a moment to look, so you get the satisfaction of finding the right one, but you always find one before getting frustrated.
Roman scoops up another one and skips it across expertly. “No, really, what was it like? I won’t make fun of you, cross my heart.”
The purple side rolls his eyes and sits himself down on the beach, running his hand over the stones on the ground. The smaller pebbles make for a nice texture.
“Come on, Ro, I’ve never kissed anyone,” he says to the ground. He expects laughter now, some light teasing, whatever punchline Roman had been setting up by asking in the first place. There’s only silence.
The emo looks up to find Roman staring at him, his eyebrows knit in confusion. “You’ve never kissed anyone?”
“Well, duh,” Virgil says. “Who would I- Wait, have you kissed someone?”
“Of course!” The prince says, throwing his arms out as if to say “look at me, who wouldn’t want to kiss me?” It's mildly disturbing to Virgil that he actually agrees, not that he would ever say that.
“What? Who, Patton?”
Roman throws back his head and laughs at that. Virgil frowns.
“Fine, Logan then?”
“Scaramore, I have never kissed either of them on the mouth, no.”
Virgil scrunches up his face in disgust. “...Janus?”
Roman makes a matching face, finally coming to sit on the ground beside him. “Don’t be gross.”
“Then who?”
“Why, people here, in the imagination!” the passionate side says, gesturing around them at the woodland glade they’re resting in. Roman had begun taking Virgil into the imagination not too long after the group’s trip to Patton’s room. Thomas had pointed out that without Virgil, Roman never would have made some of their best works. So Roman brought Virgil around for his own brainstorming, and because the escapism really helped Virgil, he always agreed to come along.
“Here?”
“Well, not here exactly. I haven’t brought anyone here but you,” Virgil’s stomach does a flip at that piece of information. “But I’ve had dozens of amazing kisses. When Thomas started imagining kissing people, so did I. My first kiss was when we were thirteen. I found a dashing prince asleep, and I was the only one who could save him!”
Virgil snorts. “Through true love’s kiss? Can a thirteen year old even have a true love?”
Roman shrugs, staring out over the water dreamily. “It felt like true love.”
The purple side watches him pensively. There’s practically stars in the prince’s eyes.
“I don’t think any of those count,” he says before he can stop himself, shattering the silence they had been sitting in.
“What?” Roman blinks, turning to look at him like he had just awoken from a dream.
“Those kisses. I mean, none of them were real, right? You imagined those people. You wouldn’t say Thomas kissed someone just cause he pictured it in his head,” Virgil picks at the knee of his ripped jeans as he points this out. There’s some satisfaction in seeing Roman’s face twist in annoyance, so long as it gets rid of the fond, adoring look that was there before.
“Hot topic, we’re not real. Even if my first kiss had been with- with Logan or whomever, it still wouldn’t have been real if you put it like that!” Virgil scowls at the idea of Roman kissing Logan. ONLY because it's weird to think about two friends kissing, and that’s it! He is not-
“Jealous,” the princely side murmurs, a look of realization dawning on his face. “Oh, I get it. You’re jealous.”
“What?!” Virgil exclaims. “That’s- that’s ridiculous! I am not.”
“You are,” Roman says knowingly, smiling in that stupidly smug, self-assured way he does. “You’re jealous because you’ve never kissed anyone.”
Oh. That’s what he thinks this is about. Virgil huffs out a laugh, looking away again.
“Virg, this is fixable! I can help you, if you tell me what you’re looking for, I can conjure the perfect first kiss for you,” he already has that look on his face, like any moment things will get foggy and rearrange into whatever scene he’s seeing. “What are you looking for in a beau? What’s your type?”
You are, Virgil thinks bitterly. Out loud, he says:
“Don’t do that, I don’t want a fake first kiss. If I’m going to kiss someone, I don’t want them to be a- a figment of your imagination. I want something that feels real, someone who has their own thoughts and feelings and is doing it of their own free will!”
That gets the prince to pause, bringing a hand up to stroke his chin as he thinks. Virgil practically sees a lightbulb go off over his head.
“I have the perfect solution! But first, some ambiance,” the creative side looks around. With a wave of his hand, the cloudy midday sky shifts, the sun sinking and the stars coming out. The moon is bright and full overhead. Despite there being no noticeable source, they can still see each other as though they sit under the lowlight of lanterns. Warm, yellow light, not too bright but not too dim.
Roman looks to one side and snaps his fingers. The glade fills with fireflies, so many that it almost looks as though the stars are descending around them. Virgil would be anxious about bugs potentially landing on them, but none fly close enough, like there’s a bubble around them.
The prince stands up, holding a hand out to Virgil. The purple side takes it warily, allowing Roman to help him to his feet. “Roman, what are you-”
“Just one more detail,” the prince cuts him off, looking off to the other side now and narrowing his eyes in concentration. Soft, orchestral music surrounds them. Virgil doesn’t know what song it is, it's nothing he recognizes, which probably means it's a Roman original. Thomas will surely be humming it by the end of the day. “There!”
The prince looks back to Virgil, and suddenly he realizes they’re still holding hands. He swallows nervously, unsure if it would be more or less conspicuous to pull back now.
“Virgil,” Roman says, reaching up with his other hand to grab his chin, keeping Virgil’s gaze firmly on himself. “I would be honored if you would allow me to be your first kiss.”
His heart decides he must be running a marathon or having a heart attack, because it starts beating out of his chest. He knows he should probably say no, clearly Roman is just doing this to be nice, as a friend. He’s the romantic side, he loves romance, and in his mind he’s kissed dozens of people. It won’t mean anything to him.
But… But Virgil really does believe kissing an imagined person is different. So it would kind of be the prince’s first kiss too. Knowing that, in a way, he would be Roman’s first kiss… Come on, he’s not made of stone. What would you do if your longtime crush asked to kiss you after setting up your perfect fantasy?
Despite his better judgement, Virgil nods slightly, staring up into Roman’s deep brown eyes.
The prince’s smile widens just a touch, and he leans down slowly, giving Virgil time to back away.
Instead, his eyes flutter closed as their lips meet. Roman gives him a slow, sweet kiss. It's almost doting, and Virgil can feel himself relaxing into it.
All too soon, Roman is pulling away, and Virgil finds himself trying to follow him. He honest to god blushes when they meet eyes again.
“So…” Roman says, slowly tracing Virgil’s jaw with his thumb. “How was it, estrella?”
He clears his throat and blinks a few times, nodding slightly, and then pulling away to look out over the water again. “Yeah, good. It was, uh… Yeah, definitely a first kiss. A good one. Uh.”
Roman laughs softly, shaking his head. “Would you ever want to do that again?”
Virgil’s head snaps around to look at him. “Would… you want to?”
“Mi amor, I thought I was being pretty clear, but I suppose I should spell it out,” the romantic side takes a breath. “I have feelings for you. And it would be my absolute pleasure to take you out on a date, if you want to.”
His jaw drops in surprise, his eyes going perfectly round. Roman likes him? And he thought he was being clear about it?! There had been literally no signs! I mean…
Okay, so maybe Roman had been making him beautiful scenes in the imagination to enjoy. And he had been giving him much nicer nicknames recently. And he did leave Virgil a bouquet of roses with a handwritten note when he asked him to come hang out today, but…
Oh my god, he’s an idiot.
“Yes,” Virgil finally says. “Yes, I-I would really like that. I, uh, I have feelings for you too. And stuff.”
He cringes at how awkward his confession sounds next to Roman’s beautiful words, but Roman beams at him like he just hung the moon.
“I’m glad the feeling is mutual,” the prince says. “May I take you out tomorrow? I know it may seem soon, but-”
“Tomorrow works,” the anxious side agrees. It's probably best if he has less time to think about it, rather than more.
“Tomorrow it is.”
Virgil just nods awkwardly, his nod going on for too long. He casts about for something to do with his hands, wanting to thank the other, wanting to congratulate them both for getting here, wanting to do something that wasn’t just standing and staring-
He holds up his hand for a high five.
He’s an idiot.
Roman laughs again, the sound so bright and beautiful that Virgil thinks he wants a whole album of it. Roman high fives him, then swiftly grabs Virgil’s hand in his own so they can hold hands instead. The prince turns them slightly so they can look over the water together, the mist rising slightly over the reflection of the moon. Hesitantly, the emo leans his head onto the other’s shoulder.
They stay that way for a long time.
“Do you want me to teach you how to skip a stone?” Roman finally breaks the silence, making Virgil laugh despite himself. “I’m sorry, you’re just so bad at it-”
“Not all of us can just go to imagined lakes whenever we want, Princey-”
They bicker companionably as Roman finds them some stones, and yes, by the end of the night Virgil does finally manage to skip one.