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The snow fell beautifully this early morning. A sheet of white stretched over the peaceful, empty countryside as far as eye could see, with only the evergreens breaking up the colors. Yet all a certain half-snake Side could do was groan and try to fall back asleep. There was no reason for him to be up this early. Thomas and the others were still asleep judging by the peaceful silence. There weren't even any sounds of Patton trying to do something in the kitchen for crying out loud! But his eyes still refused to stay closed. So, grumbling, Deceit rose up and snapped into the iconic caplet and bowler hat look before descending down into the kitchen. Maybe some hot chocolate would help.
There was still milk in the fridge thankfully. One of them would likely need to get more soon. But for right now, Deceit could have good hot chocolate, and even have a bit of fun in the process. De smiled as he shifted himself, stretching out one hand to grab a mug, one to grab a pot, one to close the fridge door after another grabbed out the milk, then a parade of hands as the milk was poured in the pot and warmed up on the stove while others grabbed out the cocoa powder and spooned it into the mug. Then everything was cleaned up and put away, the hot chocolate was made, and Deceit made one last stretch of his arms before he went back to boring old two arm form. He never could understand why the others didn't play around with that form more. Thomas may sometimes get a mite startled, but he was the one who came up with them in the first place! He may as well deal with the consequences. The view of the snow out the window caught his eye again, so still, so coldly beautiful.
Deceit sipped his hot chocolate and sighed. He may not be able to enjoy the wintery weather himself, but he could see why the others did. He smiled as he went back upstairs and past their rooms, his cape wrapped around him as a cloak. Even with the central heating, any additional warmth was ideal. He turned a door handle and quietly checked in on Thomas. Inside, he was relieved to see that he was still sleeping peacefully, free of nightmares within the nest of blankets. That day…still weighed heavily on all their minds. He added his own blanket to the nest and carried on. Next up was Remus in his room, who had somehow managed to twist up all his blankets and spread them around every which way. But he seemed to be having pleasant dreams, for once, especially with his snoring like a freight train. And so it went. Logan was on his bed, but with his laptop in front of him trying to edit videos still. Deceit just softly smiled as he saved Logan's progress before turning everything off and hiding it away. This was supposed to be a vacation after all. Patton was curled up tightly around the one plushie he'd taken with him for the trip, a white fox that Pat had determined ought to see an area close to where he came from. Virgil had clearly fallen asleep to his music again, headphones still over his ears. De sighed as he closed the door. At least they were all here though. All safe. Then he spotted that Roman’s door was already opened.
He froze, then rushed towards it. He opened the door wider and desperately looked around. Roman was gone! His bed had been made, but why was he out of his room? He was never an early riser. And where was he? He hadn't been downstairs! Deceit checked the windows. Nothing seemed forced there. He looked then outside and spotted the footprints. He gazed closer, seeing that they seemed to be only one set. But what had happened? He dashed back to Virgil’s room, shaking him. “Virgil, wake up!” He narrowly dodged the punch when it came.
“What the heck, De!” Virgil sat up in bed. “I could have hurt you.”
“ Not sorry, but it's urgent. Roman’s missing.”
“Missing?”
“He’s not in his room. There’s footprints outside and we need to hurry.”
“On it.” Virgil then shot up from bed and got into day clothes. “Wait, we? You can’t handle the cold. Just wait here and I’ll find him.”
De sighed. “Because its completely safe for you to go off alone into an unknown danger. Everyone else is asleep, Virge. We’re already the best equipped of us to scout out for what happened. Remus is liable to just go in mace first, Logan’s better when he has information to work with, none of us wants to put Thomas into danger. Then Patton, he may have proved that he is remarkably capable in an encounter, but…”
“That had still been a bit scary to witness, so he’s last resort. I get it.” Virgil zipped up his sweater. “But going out in the snow…”
De waved it off. “I’ll wear something warmer, don’t worry. I’ll meet you by the door.” Then he was off, leaving Virgil sighing as he finished up.
Soon the two intrepid Sides were out the door, braving the wintery unknown, De within about ten layers and still feeling cold. Virgil looked at him worriedly, but the two of them were silent as they continued onward, the footprints their only guide. As they continued on, all De could do was curse Cruella for deciding he ought to be cold-blooded when he came into being.
A sound then reached their ears, causing them to pause. A scrap, then another, and long whoosh…Was that, skating? They cautiously made their way to through the trees, then they saw their lost prince. A lake was there, perfect for ice skating, and it seemed that Roman had decided that this early in the morning was the first time to do so. The tracks in the ice showed that he’d been there for some time, but he was already gliding around with the greatest of ease with skates he’d obviously summoned himself with their red and white pattern with gold crowns and outlines that suited his usual princely outfit.
The two sighed as they approached, though Roman didn’t notice them, too entranced within his snowy ballet. Then he slid over to a rock to catch his breath and looked up, eyes widening. “De? Virge? What are you doing…?”
“What are you doing, Princey?” Virgil crossed his arms. “You left without letting anyone knowing where you were. Do you realize how dangerous that is?”
Roman’s eyes then hardened. “I do not need to let you know my every move, J. Delightful. I just needed some time alone. Can’t a character have that? I was planning to get back before Patton woke up anyway.”
“This is the middle of nowhere!” Virgil gestured around, eyes narrowing. “If W.I.S.H or anyone else tracked us here, you would be in one of their little cages shipped off to freaking ANYWHERE and we’d have no idea of it in time to save your butt.”
“I’m able to hold my own.”
“That means nothing! Did you want to be someone’s…?”
“That’s Enough!” De moved between them. “Both of you. While what he did was reckless, yelling at him about risks he knows about isn’t helping. Let’s get back to the cabin and discuss like civil adults, if the two of you even qualify as such.”
Roman then frowned. “De, how long have you been outside?”
“What?” He looked down and noticed that he was starting to wave on his feet, eyes flickering in drowsiness.
Virgil unfolded his arms. “De?”
Deceit started falling to the ground, eyes closing.
“DE!!!” Two pairs of arms caught him just as he fell into unconsciousness.
Warmth, warmth surrounded him. The cackling and crackling of a fire could be heard, warm blankets enveloped him, and the softest couch imaginable embraced him. This, this was heaven. He shifted himself to face the fire, letting out a mum of contentment.
“De? You awake?”
“Obviously not.” He reluctantly then opened his eyes, blinking as he spotted Roman and Virgil both sitting nearby, watching him warily. “I’m clearly about to die and all your attempts to save me miserably failed. Wipe those frowns off your face. I’m not alright.”'
Virgil chuckled. “Good to see you back De.”
“Indeed. This fellowship of ours would be remiss if you were gone.” Roman then looked down at his hands, wringing them nervously.
De sighed. “It's all definitely your fault. It's not like I know my limits or anything.”
“But you wouldn’t have pushed them if you two hadn’t come in search of me. I should have left a note, something. Instead of just barging out of the house without a second thought!”
Virgil rose an eyebrow. "Why did you even do that, Princey. You know what sort of fright that can cause." Yet Roman said nothing, idling playing with his hands.
De leaned back. “You had a nightmare this morning, didn’t you?”
Roman tensed.
Virgil leaned closer. “Princey, you know we all have our own nightmares. You can come to any of us.”
“But, everyone was still asleep. I didn’t want to wake you.”
“And so you decided that walking half a mile away from the house to go skating would be the best way to clear your head? Princey, what if someone had caught you?”
“It was a fairly isolated lake, as you both noticed. I simply saw it as we came in. I’d been wanting to try ice skating for a while.”
“Why not just wait for all of us to join you?
“I…simply didn’t want to humiliate myself in front of all of you. Its vain of me but I would prefer…”
“I do need to be able to tell when a person is lying to know that was one.”
Roman lowered his head and sighed. “February 14th is coming up.”
Both of them paused at the non-sequitur, before Virgil started to click the pieces together. “Your wisher…had something in mind for Valentine’s Day?”
“It was originally going to be the date of my birth, before she decided the one in June would be more appropriate.” He bitterly chuckled as his glance turned towards the fire. “Then, Rosa confided that she’d had planned for it to be the day of our wedding, except for the fact she couldn’t wait that long. Three months was already long enough in her eyes.” He looked back on his hands. “She still planned for something to happen then. She wouldn’t let Valentine’s Day pass without doing something for the Side of Romance.”
De peered closely at the prince. “Valentine’s Day, would be after the three month mark of us staying under Thomas’s roof.”
“That and…she use to do a lot of things with me. Constantly wanting to enjoy my first experience of anything.” The prince shivered. “I…wanted at least one thing to be first experienced on my own, to spite her for looking forward to doing it with me, to not be haunted by Thomas if he should…”
Virgil then lightly rested a hand on Roman’s shoulder. “Roman. I’m the Anxiety here. Let me be the one to worry if Thomas might still turn on us.”
Roman shook his head. “I’m not that dense, Virge. And we all know that we ceased to be simply representations of various aspects of Thomas’s psyche the moment we became real. There’s no way for me to just be sunshine, rainbows, and puppies and not worry!”
De sighed. “You trust us though, right? And it is completely not ironic for me to be asking you this.”
Roman rolled his eyes. “Can’t be any more ironic than you having to ask the overly trusting Creativity if I trust our little band…You know that I do. If I couldn’t trust the rest of you, there wouldn’t be anyone I could trust.”
De leaned forward. “Then trust me in this. Thomas wasn’t lying when he said he brought us out here for a white winter as our first one. Patton could tell you that he was sincere in wanting that and only that. Valentine’s Day will roll around and nothing that you don’t want will happen or will have happen, especially not because of Thomas.”
Roman looked into De’s eyes. “Can, can you promise that?”
De smiled. “I can.”
The prince’s eyes started to glisten, before he sunk his head back down. Virgil wrapped an arm around him. De sighed and came over, wrapping an arm around his other shoulder, two sentinels to make sure Ro was free to unleash his relief, fear, and pain by the crackling fire. De looked upstairs, thinking of those still abed. Then he focused back down on their prince, locking eyes with Virgil. He was safe here at least. He was loved. They all were…And the two of them would be the guardians for the others, no matter what may come.