Chapter Text
Roman Preston’s life had been a strange one. He had been adopted not long after his first birthday, he knew that, yet he had no idea who his birth parents were, where they lived or even if they were still alive. He knew nothing of his past, only of the life with his adoptive father, who was one of the kindest people Roman had ever met in his 26 years of life. He was always there when Roman had needed support, was accepting when Roman came out as gay and had even stayed at his side when Roman grew increasingly ill over the years, only to recover a short time after his father passed away.
Roman’s illnesses were bizarre, to say the least. When he was around seven years old, his skin began hardening until it was tougher than leather and he could barely move, but it softened and went back to normal when Roman was thirteen, a few weeks before Roman’s puberty had hit him. When he was sixteen, his body began to burn up in the middle of a biology lesson, causing him to collapse onto the floor and be rushed to the hospital, but his temperature was completely normal the next day, and Roman returned to find out that scorch marks had been left on the wooden table he had been seated at, and only a few years ago, Roman was unable to breathe and could only cough up blood, resulting in him being put on a respirator and in a coma-like state until two years ago, almost to the day, when he suddenly found his airway clear again. Only a few months before he had returned home, his dad had succumbed to lung cancer, leaving Roman alone in the house he grew up in.
Roman’s one friend throughout all of this was Logan Miller, who he had known for as long as he could remember. Logan was the complete opposite of Roman; stoic, quiet, studious and refusing to believe in anything not scientifically proven; in fact, it was only their shared love of literature that brought them together as friends. You almost wouldn’t believe it, the theatre kid with his head in the clouds and the grounded bookworm seemed to have nothing in common, yet when Roman found Logan in his apartment, the shocked and delighted emotion on Logan’s normally blank face was everything to prove how close the two friends were.
“R-Roman? How are you here, you were in the hospital-” Logan was gripping onto Roman’s arms, as if not believing the sight without feeling the realness of Roman’s body.
“My dear spectacled friend, another miracle hit me only a few days ago!” Roman declared, the smirk on his face that always was there when he recovered, this time a lot more grateful than he let himself show, and Roman was expecting Logan’s same old, steeped-in-logic response. However, it never came, instead, a perplexed yet thoughtful look swam in Logan’s eyes for a moment before the shorter nerd pulled Roman into his apartment.
“Tell me you have some time, there’s so much I have to catch you up on-”
“Logan?” A voice from somewhere in the apartment startled Roman, and he looked around until he saw a figure standing in Logan’s living room, wearing a grey hoodie and a silver scarf and seemingly glaring daggers into Roman’s very soul. “Who is this?” The voice was deep, almost a growl and was dripping with malice that almost made Roman flinch back. Almost.
“Ah, Virg,” Logan cleared his throat as he spoke, his arms pulling away from Roman. “This is Roman, he’s my oldest friend. Roman, this is Virgil, my… boyfriend.” As Logan uttered the last word, Roman noticed his face turning a darker shade of red than it was, while Virgil’s posture seemed to straighten ever so slightly.
“You have a boyfriend now!?” was Roman’s response once he had collected his thoughts, trying to ignore the uneasy aura he could feel coming from Virgil. “I really must’ve been out for a while, the stoic and emotion-hating Logan Miller has a boyfriend! Colour me shocked!”
“Alright, alright, you can stop making fun of me, Ro,” Logan sighed, and Virgil merely shifted on his feet, looking very uncomfortable before moving across the room to the door.
“I’m gonna… take off…” his voice was a lot lower, void of any of the anger it held before, and Logan seemed to notice this as well.
“Alright, tomorrow?” Virgil simply nodded, before moving closer to Logan and pressing their noses together for a brief moment and then, Virgil was gone, and Roman realised just how hot Logan’s apartment was.
“Well, he’s certainly… intense,” Roman half-joked, trying to keep the mood light. Logan nodded, his gaze lingering on the closed door for a few moments before turning back to Roman.
“He’s a bit different from you and me,” was Logan’s almost cryptic reply.
“No shit, Lo, now come on you have to tell me how you guys met!”