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“I’m sorry, you had sex with him how many times?” the response was muffled through the cell phone held to his ear. “I don’t think you can call that a bromance, Roman.” Logan’s voice was flat as he responded to his step-brother. “No, I don’t think a higher number would...Have you considered that you are engaged in a relationship with him?”
“LOGAN!” The man winced and pulled his phone away from his ear. “You can’t just say things like that! You know how he is.”
Logan groaned and rubbed his forehead. “I am almost home, perhaps this would be best to talk about in person instead of over the phone so that your levels are more balanced instead of just going in one ear and making me half deaf.”
Roman rolled his eyes. “Fine.” he muttered before hanging up, pouting.
Ten minutes later, Logan walked in and was immediately pounced on by Roman who dragged him into the living room of their small apartment.
“You know Virgil doesn’t want to be in a relationship with the way his last one ended! You can’t just go around throwing that word so casually.” Roman scolded him.
He groaned and sat down. It had been a long day and now he had to deal with this too? He just wanted a nice cup of tea and a good book before bed. Not his younger brother’s drama. “Roman, you have taken this man on several dates, slept with him a number of times and as far as I know, neither of you are seeing other people. By all qualifications, the two of you are engaged in a romantic relationship. And bromance is not a real thing. It is a term used by men whose egos are too fragile to admit they are sexually or romantically interested in men. And since both you and Virgil have been in openly public relationships with men, don’t use that.”
Roman rolled his eyes. “It can also be used to describe two bros who do romantic or sexual things with each other but aren’t in an actual relationship. Ha. I know things too.”
“That, Roman, is called Friends with Benefits.” Logan stood. “Where there are no feelings involved.” He leveled dark brown eyes at him. “And you and I both know that you care deeply for Virgil, even if you haven't told him as such. Or admitted it to yourself.”
Leaving Roman staring after him, Logan went to his room and lay on the bed with a groan. Emotions certainly were messy.
-XxX-
Roman was left sitting on the couch after Logan had left, thinking about what he had said. He did care about Virgil. He had been friends with him for a few years and had hated how his last boyfriend had treated him. Lying to him to make him feel bad so that he would do what he wanted. When Roman had found Dimitri in a back room of a club with someone else he had nearly killed him, knowing how much Virgil was going to be hurt by that. Instead, he had taken a picture and, after talking with Logan about it for a couple of days, showing it only to Virgil who had broken up with Dimitri that hour and sworn off dating again.
But according to Logan, Roman and Virgil were not only dating but in a relationship. Not that that robot of a brother would know what a relationship was. But he had a point that Roman was doing what he normally did with the people he dated. He looked at his phone, with the little icon next to Virgil’s name, telling him that he had a new message. He chewed his lip and hit open on their text thread.
Hey Ro, want to hang out tonight? Patton is clearing out for the night so we will have the whole place to ourselves.
Sure, what time should I be over?
Now?
Roman jumped off the couch and ran to his room, starting to pack a bag, grinning. It was only 5, if he went over they could easily spend most of the night together instead of just a couple hours. He missed Logan coming to his doorway and frowning.
“Roman? What are you doing?”
“Going to spend some time at Virge’s. Prolly grab a pizza and watch a movie.”
“Roman….Thomas is taking us out to dinner tonight.” Logan never called Roman’s father by anything but his name. Roman paused and looked at the calendar hanging above his desk with a big red circle over today's date. That was right, his dad was coming into town to see them… His shoulders dropped a little.
“Right…I’d forgotten.” He sighed softly and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll tell Virgil I can’t right now...maybe I can after dinner.”
Logan nodded and left Roman to himself. Roman pulled his phone out and sent a text off. I totally forgot my dad was in town tonight and wanted to take Lo and I to dinner. I can swing by after if you want.
Roman started putting things back from his bag, glancing at his phone from time to time until there was a knock on the apartment door. He went and answered it, smiling brightly at the man that stood on the other side. “Dad! Hey.”
Thomas moved in and hugged Roman as Logan came out of his room. “Hey Kiddos! You guys ready for a Sanders exclusive father-sons bonding night?” When they nodded he moved out of the way. “Let’s go.”
Roman’s phone lay forgotten on his bed.
-XxX-
“I cannot believe I left my phone here!” Roman groaned as he burst through the apartment door, followed shortly by his brother and father, the latter of which was smiling fondly. “I could have just had you dropped me off at Virgil’s if I had it with me,” he said from down the hall.
“Boyfriend?” Thomas looked at Logan.
“Not to their faces; but yes.” Logan nodded as he went to put the leftovers in the fridge, Thomas following. “Early stages and they won’t admit that they are dating.”
“Young love.” Thomas sighed wistfully. He glanced over as Roman came back in. “Everything okay, Kiddo?”
“I think Virgil is mad at me.” He muttered, looking at his phone. “He called me like four times and he isn’t picking up now.” He looked up at the other two men. Logan glanced from Roman to Thomas, frowning a little.
“Perhaps I can try Patton?” Logan offered but Roman just shook his head.
“Patton was going out tonight?” He missed the small flicker of emotion go through his brother’s eyes at that. “I….I’m going to try again.” He hit call and held the phone to his ear, letting it ring until it went to voicemail before hanging up.
Thomas looked at his son. “Maybe he isn’t by his phone. Would you like me to drive you over to his place so you can check?”
Roman slowly nodded. “Y-yeah. Thank you.”
Thomas gave him a hug and lead the way back out to the car, Roman clearly nervous. “I’m sure everything is okay, Roman. Just take a deep breath.” Once Roman had done so, Thomas held his gps out to him. “Address?” Roman put it in and Thomas started following the directions, staying quiet.
It wasn’t too long before they pulled up in front of a small single-story duplex. “The one on the right,” Roman said, barely letting Thomas stop the car before he was out the car and rushing over to the house. Instead of going to the door, he went around the side and to a window, tapping on it.
After a moment the curtain moved aside and Roman could see Virgil peering out at him. He frowned a little when he saw Roman and Roman bit his lip, nervous at that look alone. He slowly took a couple steps back as Virgil started to open his window.
“What are you doing here, Sanders?” His voice was rough and Roman winced, knowing he had been crying.
“You weren’t answering your phone....I...I wanted to apologize for flaking like that.” He said as Thomas walked up. “I completely forgot my dad was coming into town today.” He waved at him and the young man looked out the window to the man on his sidewalk. He looked back at Roman. “And then I kinda forgot my phone on my bed.” He offered a weak grin which fell when Virgil didn’t smile or say anything, his arms crossed.
After several awkward moments, Virgil sighed. “You’re an idiot.” he tilted his head towards the door and closed his window. Roman scrambled to run to the door and grinned when he heard the lock click and the door opened. “Dad, tell Logan I am staying here tonight!” Roman called before slipping in.
Roman followed Virgil to his room, sitting in the desk chair while Virgil took up the bed. They sat in silence for a long time before Roman spoke up.
“Virge? What’s wrong?”
“I just...when you said sure and then suddenly had plans that you had forgotten about…” he took a deep breath. “It felt a lot like when Dimitri would...you know, find someone better to be with that night.”
Roman blinked a couple of times before shaking his head. “No. I honestly forgot my dad was coming in today because I wanted to hang with you so badly.”
“Why?” Virgil looked at Roman, eyes wide and nervous.
Roman pulled his lower lip through his teeth and swallowed hard. “Because I….Because I care about you Virgil, and I really enjoy spending time with you.” He met his gaze and gave him a smile. “Because I love spending time with my boyfriend.”
“B-Boyfriend?” Virgil frowned.
“If you are okay with that...I mean, all it would be doing is putting a label on what we already do. Hang out, go on dates and of course…” He waggled his eyebrows. Virgil groaned and hid in the hood of his hoodie more. “But really, Virgil..I enjoy having you as a friend but I care about you...I have for a while. And if you are comfortable with it, I would like to be your boyfriend.”
Virgil looked at him, silent. After a long moment, he slowly nodded. “Y-yeah. We--we can be boyfriends.” Roman grinned and moved over to the bed.
“I want to kiss you, can I kiss you?” He was still grinning a happy idiot grin. Virgil grabbed a pillow and shoved it in his face, laughing as Roman fell to the side, laying next to him.
“You really are just a great big idiot.”
“And now I am your idiot.”