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“I wouldn’t call - a crazy thing to do just in case she said who?” Roman sang, gazing into the distance as the song finished. He tried to stay in character; this was a pivotal scene, but he couldn’t think properly.
He was still out of breath as the lights went down, signaling for him to leave the stage. Thank God. Normally, he loved the stage, loved acting and singing, but today felt off. Roman couldn’t focus.
“Alright, it’s 5 o’clock everyone!” Thomas, the director, called. “We’ll finish running Act II on Monday. Have a good weekend!”
Roman sighed in relief as he went to grab his rehearsal bag. Everything felt off, and all he wanted to do right now was go home and do absolutely nothing for a little while.
There was a tap on his shoulder, and he spun around to see Thomas standing there. He was frowning but didn’t seem to be angry, “Hey, Roman, is everything alright? You seemed a bit distracted up there. You were looking all over the place.”
Everyone had an acting quirk, and Roman’s was that he had trouble keeping his eyes in one spot. When not consciously thinking about it, his eyes would dart to look anywhere except where he was supposed to be looking. “Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just sort of an off day, you know?”
Thomas nodded in understanding, “Go home and get some rest, Roman. You’ve been working really hard.”
Roman gave him a thumbs up before swinging his messenger bag onto his shoulder and exiting the theater. He waved to Joan, who was sprawled across several chairs in the lobby, and then opened the door and stepped outside.
The sun was shining, but it was just a bit too bright for Roman. Out of habit, he looped around towards the back of the building, intending to head towards his usual parking spot. It was only when he reached the empty slot that he remembered.
Shit
Virgil had taken the car today. Normally, he took the bus and let Roman have the car on rehearsal days, but today was Virgil’s bimonthly lunch date with his brother who lived six hours away. They had agreed to always meet at a cafe halfway, and Virgil needed the car for the three hour drive. He had dropped Roman off at rehearsal this morning before leaving. And Roman had completely forgotten.
He buried his head into his hands. He had been looking forward to just immediately going home and relaxing, but his boyfriend had the car, so he was stuck at the theater until Virgil arrived to pick him up.
With a sigh, Roman returned to the front of the theater. There was no point in standing in a mostly empty parking lot where Virgil would struggle to find him. He didn’t need to make his boyfriend worry for no reason.
Trying to look casual, Roman leaned against the building and pulled out his phone. He scrolled aimlessly through Instagram for what felt like an eternity before he saw a flash of red in his peripheral vision. Glancing up, a genuine smile came to his lips as Virgil pulled up to the curb. He felt some of the tension leave his shoulders as Roman strode forward, shoving his phone into his pocket and opening the car door.
“Took you long enough,” he jested as he sat down, a light smile on his face to let Virgil know that he was joking. Even though he was actually irritated, Roman couldn’t take it out on his boyfriend. It wasn’t his fault.
“Sorry,” Virgil replied, his eyes revealing the sarcasm in his tone. “Rush hour traffic is awful at this time of day, even in the middle of nowhere.”
“How’s Patton?” Roman asked, buckling in. Virgil pulled out of the parking lot and made a left onto the main road.
“Great,” he said. “He finally worked up the courage to ask out that guy at work, and they’re going on a date tomorrow.”
Roman hummed in acknowledgement, “That is great! I hope he has the best time.”
A silence fell over the car, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Both Roman and Virgil knew that they didn’t need to talk to be able to enjoy each other’s company. Roman stared out the window, not paying much attention to anything as he waited for them to arrive at home.
However, only moments passed before the turn into their neighborhood had come and gone. Virgil continued on driving, not fazed at all which was odd. Usually, he was so careful when driving that he hyper-focused on every single detail.
“Uhh... Virge?” Roman asked, turning his head away from the window to face his boyfriend. “You just missed the turn?”
“Hmm?” Virgil blinked, his concentration turning away from the road and towards Roman. “Oh, we have basically no food at home, so I’m stopping by the grocery store first. Shit, did I not tell you?” Roman nodded in response, but it wouldn’t have mattered as Virgil continued talking without waiting for a reply. “I’m sorry, Ro. I can turn back and drop you at home first if you want?”
Roman wanted to say yes. Yes, he was tired, and all he wanted was to get home as soon as possible. But he couldn’t do that to Virgil. His boyfriend had already planned on heading to the grocery store, and it threw him off when plans changed last minute. He knew Virgil would sacrifice to get him home, but Roman didn’t want to bother him.
“Nah,” he finally said as nonchalantly as possible. “I think we’re closer to the grocery store then home at this point anyways. It’d be a waste to turn back now.”
Roman had already turned away to gaze out the window again, so he missed the eyebrow raise that Virgil gave him. A brief silence stretched throughout the rest of the short commute, and soon enough, Virgil had pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store.
Sighing, Roman stepped out of the car and stretched absentmindedly. Virgil looped around to the other side of the car and casually intertwined his fingers with Roman’s. The two then entered the grocery store.
The fresh burst of cold air was refreshing as Roman stepped through the sliding doors. He must have zoned out for a minute since he then turned around to see Virgil standing there with a cart. “Do you want to push it, Ro?” He asked with a smirk.
Roman raised an eyebrow, “Do I? You mean you’re asking me if I want to do the absolute best part of coming to the grocery store? Of course! I wouldn’t miss this opportunity for the world!”
Virgil snickered but said nothing as the two continued on deeper into the store.
It was pretty mundane really; grocery shopping stopped being fun once Roman had turned nine and his parents had told him that he was too old to get a free cookie. In his opinion, you could never be too old for free cookies, but he had merely crossed his arms and pouted and from then on volunteered less and less to come to the grocery store.
Now, though, as an adult, there were details that jumped out at him that his nine year old self would not have noticed. Such as how bright the store could be. Thankfully, Virgil mostly wore dark clothes, even in the summer, so Roman kept his eyes mainly trained on his boyfriend who strode ahead of the cart.
He zoned out mostly as Virgil pulled various things off of the shelves and guided where he needed to push the cart. He knew that his boyfriend had a routine when he was the one to go grocery shopping, and he didn’t want to mess it up. Not like Roman had the energy to protest anyways.
They reached the frozen foods aisle, and Virgil stopped for a moment to check the list he had typed out on his phone. His eyes widened as he scanned the list again. “Oh shit,” he muttered before turning to Roman. “Hey uh Ro, we passed by the chips and forgot to get something, so do you want to go back and uh pick something out?”
The request seemed forced, and Virgil was usually never that nervous asking Roman to do something so simple, but Roman was too tired to overthink it, “Yeah, sure. I’ll be right back.”
He let go of his firm grip on the cart and wandered back the way the two had came, scanning his surroundings to locate the chips. They were only a few aisles away, but Roman found himself at a second problem as he stared at the almost infinite expanse of chips. Which one should he pick?
Roman wasn’t even a big fan of chips either. They made a huge mess, and he was never able to understand what people were saying when he was chewing. He knew Virgil enjoyed them, though, so he focused instead on picking something that Virgil would like.
After a few more minutes of rubbing his temples and just staring blankly at the rows of chips, Roman settled for barbecue, having seen Virgil eat those several times, and doubled back to the frozen foods aisle where he knew his boyfriend would be waiting for him.
“Took you long enough,” Virgil said as he rounded the corner, echoing the same words Roman had said less than an hour earlier. His tone was light, though, and showed he meant no harm, “Did you find the chips okay?”
“Yeah,” Roman replied holding up the bag before dropping it unceremoniously into the cart. He didn’t miss the look in Virgil’s eyes when he realized that Roman had picked out chips that particularly he liked.
Virgil then glanced down at his phone to check his list and then check it a second and third time, “That should hopefully be everything. Let’s head to the checkout.”
And by checkout, Virgil meant the self-checkout since with his anxiety, there was no way he was doing any more socialization with strangers than he absolutely had to. While they made their way there, Roman noticed that Virgil seemed to be more on edge than usual. He was actually doing a decent job at concealing it, but Roman was an actor and had more experience picking these sorts of things up than most.
Just when he was about to ask his boyfriend if he was doing alright, Virgil spoke, “Hey I think I saw an issue of that magazine you’re always reading on the rack back there. Do you want to go check if it’s one you haven’t read yet?”
There was definitely something up, but Roman decided that in a public grocery store when both of them were tired was not the time to confront him about this, “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”
Virgil nodded, “I’ll go ahead and pay for our stuff.”
Roman headed towards the magazine rack and easily located the magazine that Virgil had spotted. Part of him was touched that his boyfriend knew which ones he read and then was able to recognize them at a glance. Unfortunately, it was an older issue that Roman had already read countless times, but he still spent a couple minutes flipping through the pages and then browsing through a couple others before he decided that Virgil was probably waiting on him at this point. He placed down the magazine that was in his hands and returned to his boyfriend empty-handed.
Virgil was leaning against the checkout machine, bags of groceries in one hand and his phone in the other. He looked up as Roman approached. “Did you find it?”
Roman shrugged, “Yeah but it was an old issue. D’you get everything?”
He nodded, but as Roman made to grab one of the bags, Virgil stepped back and shook his head, “I got it. You ready to go home?”
“Mhm,” Roman tried to sound noncommittal, but it was hard. Those five words were what he had been waiting to hear almost all day. He couldn’t wait to finally be safe and away from the bright lights of the grocery store.
The two exited, Virgil once again denying help as he loaded the groceries into the car. The drive home was short and rather forgettable; still, Roman could recall hyper-focusing on a sparrow that he spotted flying by their car.
Roman then practically sprinted into the house as soon as the car was parked in their small garage. Helping Virgil bring in the groceries came to him as an afterthought as he haphazardly kicked off his shoes and dropped his messenger bag on the floor. He shrugged it away, though, figuring his boyfriend would want to do it by himself anyways as he had with bagging and carrying the groceries.
He flopped onto the couch, allowing his body to just sink into the soft material and sighed. Everything would be okay. He was home.
Reaching for the remote that lay on their small coffee table, Roman turned on the TV and flipped through the settings to play the movie that was currently in their DVD player: The Little Mermaid. Disney was an absolute must for Roman on any off day.
He heard the sounds of Virgil entering the house and carrying the groceries to the kitchen in the background, but he mostly ignored it in favor of focusing on the beginning scenes of the movie.
A few minutes passed before Virgil walked into the room, a bowl in hand. Roman turned to look at him and his eyes widened as he saw the contents: mac and cheese, Roman’s favorite comfort food.
He gaped, his eyes starting to water, "Wait, how? I thought we were all out."
Virgil smirked, "Well we just went to the grocery store, didn't we?"
He felt a tear trickle down his cheek and smiled. Roman patted the couch next to him, "Well come here then and let me thank you properly."
His boyfriend obliged, placing the bowl on the small coffee table before promptly sitting in Roman's lap. He squeaked in surprise, making Virgil grin. "I meant for you to sit next to me, dork," Roman complained.
"Do you want me to move?" Virgil asked.
"..No"
"Well... okay then, if you say so," Virgil wrapped his arms around Roman's neck and pressed a kiss to his temple. Roman's cheeks turned a deep shade of crimson, but he said nothing as he was too flustered by the attention.
The pressure from Virgil on his lap was comforting, though, and Roman felt some of the tension leave his muscles as he relaxed into the couch. He felt secure, and everything was starting to feel okay and safe again. He focused on the movie for a few moments and watched as the daughters of Triton performed.
Roman then felt like he was being watched. He turned his head to the left to see Virgil focused on him rather than the movie, a soft smile painted across his face. "Enjoying the movie?" he joked.
Virgil blushed when he realized he had been caught, "You get this look when you're watching Disney. Your whole face lights up, and your eyes practically sparkle. It's honestly one of the cutest things I've seen."
Roman sputtered, but Virgil continued to talk, "It also helps that your face is just pretty in general. You're beautiful, Roman." His voice got real soft, "I love you. And I hope that you know that."
Flustered, Roman didn't bother replying in response. Instead he tangled his fingers in Virgil's hair and guided him into a kiss.
Usually, their kisses were passionate. They were full of sparks and desire. But this one was soft. It was gentle and loving. And Roman didn't want it to end.
They both needed air eventually, though, and Virgil pulled away after a minute or so, placing a kiss on Roman's forehead as he did.
"I love you too, Virgil," Roman murmured.
His boyfriend said nothing, instead opting to run his fingers through Roman's hair. He all but purred in response, causing Virgil to giggle, which Roman decided was probably the best sound he had ever heard.
Life was hard and overwhelming sometimes, but right there and right then in Virgil’s arms, Roman decided that life was pretty great.