Chapter Text
“What if I don’t get a role? My dreams will be shattered!” Logan Croft groaned at his cousin’s theatrics for what felt like the figurative millionth time in that conversation alone.
“You will do just fine, but if you are that worried… If it does go poorly, there will be other chances to perform.”
He sighed then smirked, “You know, I never would have thought that you, ‘the great Roman Prince’, would be so worried about a callback.” Roman sighed back, then turned to level a glare at his best friend.
“And you know that no matter how many callbacks you go through, you still get nervous. Besides, this is our Junior year! You know there won’t be many more chances.” Logan crossed his arms and returned Roman’s glare.
“I am simply stating a fact. I feel as though you should be used to this by now. Besides, I thought you would be ecstatic over the chance to play a new role. I did not factor this into the post-callback celebration that you insisted I plan.” Roman raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by a voice calling his name.
“Fracture a femur, Roman. I will be waiting out here for you when you are done.”
“Thanks, cuz. I’m really glad you could stay after school with me. I needed the distraction.”
“I’m glad that I could be of assistance, Roman.” Logan watched his cousin strut into the theatre, sighing as he sat down on a nearby bench and pulled out his comfort book. Today was going to be an even longer day than he thought. He began to read, and it felt like only moments had passed when suddenly another person sat down next to him. Logan glanced up from his book to see who had just interrupted his reading of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and smiled fondly down at the boy, who had a bright grin on his face, his ice-blue eyes sparkling with joy.
“Heya Logie! How’s the book?” Logan set the book down on his lap and put his arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders.
“Good afternoon, Pat. It is a masterpiece of literature as always. How was your day?” Patton put his head on Logan’s shoulder before sighing, seeming annoyed.
“Exhausting… Virgil wanted to join the Theatre club because he was curious about tech, but he was too nervous to ask. I spent the whole day trying to convince him that it was a good idea before he finally gave in and signed up. It took a lot of convincing, and it was almost a deal-breaker when he remembered that Roman is in Theatre.”
“I’d quite like to know why he hates Roman so much. I know why the feeling is mutual, but not why Virgil so hates him. When did they even meet?”
“Oh, I thought you knew. When we were younger, Roman said something that turned out to be unforgivable in Virgil’s eyes.” Logan, leaning back a bit to make eye contact, raised an eyebrow curiously and tilted his head, silently asking the question that Patton knew he would ask.
“I’m not very sure what was said. Virge has since made the topic off limits, and refuses to speak a word otherwise.” Patton sighed again. “Anyway, enough about my day. How was yours?” Logan groaned, nuzzling his head into Patton’s hair, and began to stroke a repetitive pattern into the soft amber curls at the base of Patton’s neck. “That good, huh?”
“Roman whined all day. Mainly because of his nerves about the callback. He did get in a fair amount of complaining about Virgil, but only a little.” Logan sighed. ”Lucky me,” He deadpanned. Patton began to giggle, turning a bit to put his arms around Logan’s neck and look the other boy in the eyes.
“I love you, Lo.” Patton breathed. Logan’s smile returned, and he slowly leaned in, feeling the other’s gentle breath on his face, and softly connected their lips. The world around them began to fade away and Logan’s brain went blank as the two gently moved their mouths in a rhythm known only to them. His heart began to swell as he let the familiar taste and scent of sugar and citrus fruits roll across his tongue. He wasn’t sure who broke the kiss first, but the two simply sat with their foreheads touching, letting the scent and breath of their partner twine around them. He smiled and simply whispered one sentence.
“I love you too, dear.” The teens sat in comfortable silence before they leaned their heads on each other’s shoulders to relax once more, just enjoying their partner’s company for a while, and just talking about the small happenings of their days.
About an hour later, Logan remained alone at the bench, Patton having left around five minutes prior when he heard his cousin tromping towards him excitedly.
“How did you do, Roman?” Logan asked as he tucked his book, halfway completed, into his bag.
“I believe it went splendidly! I am sure to be a shoo-in for a role,” Roman cheered. “I said my lines perfectly! I sang beautifully in the original audition! And my dance skills are unrivaled, especially when I'm auditioning!”
“I am glad to hear that it went well, Roman. Would you like us to visit the ice cream shop you love?” Roman ran off enthusiastically towards the door, and Logan was almost unable to hear his response.
“Sounds supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” Logan groaned, one Disney quote was sure to lead to more. While he was glad the callback went well, he was very annoyed at the knowledge that he would hear various Disney quotes slipped not-so-subtly into the conversation for the rest of the week at the very least. He sighed, striding off after his over-the-top cousin. Hopefully Roman wouldn’t terrorize too many service workers tonight.
Patton Picani giggled as he skipped down the street toward the ice cream parlor. His partner (and didn’t it just feel great to think of him that way?) liked to pretend he wasn’t very emotional, but Patton knew better. He saw the blush on Logan’s face whenever they kissed. Gosh, he loved him. It was too bad that they couldn’t be open about their affections, what with Logan’s homophobic parents and Virgil’s hatred of Roman. The bell jingled as he made his way into the shop’s ground floor, smiling at his younger sibling sitting behind the counter, bubblegum-pink hair covering their eyes. They looked up at Patton and sent him a big grin.
“Hey, big bro! Virge just got off work, so he’s upstairs in the apartment. It’s pretty quiet right now, so you can go up and do homework or something. Just don’t forget, your shift starts at 4:30.”
“Thanks, Em! How’s dad doing?” Patton asked. Emile winked mischievously at him as he passed toward the back, waving vaguely in the direction of the back room before grinning even wider. Going back to what they were doing prior to Patton’s entrance, they began to answer the question slightly louder than was probably necessary.
“Oh, you know, he’s--”
“...doing well, thanks for asking! He can also answer for himself!” Their dad, Remy, yelled up after Patton as he climbed the stairs into their family’s apartment. Patton giggled, letting himself into the house, before calling out to his twin brother, who was sitting on the couch in their living room.
“Heya Virgie! How was the rest of your day?” Virgil looked up at him through a purple fringe. He groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes and breaking into yet another long rant about how annoying the Prince boy was. Patton began to half tune out his twin as he pulled out his homework from his bag and grabbed a glass of water, nodding at all of the right times and gasping when necessary. He was getting far too good at tuning out Virgil’s rants about Roman, wasn’t he?
“--and really, does he need to be so freaking handsome? I mean that just causes his ego to skyrocket. He doesn’t need to be that handsome…” Patton almost choked on his mouthful of water at that. Maybe this whole Theatre thing would be worth it. After all, it might get his twin to finally get a significant other. Virgil just really needed someone to get him out of the house if Patton was being honest with himself. So if there was any chance Roman could get him out of the house? Patton would welcome it with open arms. “And another thing-”
“Hey, Virge?” Patton interrupted.
“Yeah, Pat?”
“What do you think about me joining you in tech? For Theatre, I mean.”
“Really!?! I would love to have you there. What brought this on?” Virgil asked. Patton tried to think of an excuse other than: ‘my boyfriend is in Theatre and I need to get you to stop arguing with his cousin before I can tell you.’
“Ummm… You seemed really excited kiddo! I wanted to see what it was like.”
“We’re twins, Pat.” Virgil deadpanned.
“Yeahhhh, but you’re still the younger one!”
“By five minutes!” Virgil continued, marginally louder to cover up his brother’s response. Both boys stopped talking and stared at each other before bursting into giggles. “But in all seriousness, I would love it if you would join me in Theatre. It would be nice to have someone I’m comfortable around in it with me.” The two brothers had overlapping friend groups, but neither had other friends that would be very interested in Theatre. Patton smiled.
“I was thinking I would join as a techie! Maybe head or assistant stage manager if I can.” Virgil quirked his head.
“I thought you would choose to join pit? You love to play the piano.” Patton froze for a split second before smiling nervously.
“I want to try something new! And besides, I love organizing things!” Virgil squinted at him and sighed.
“I know that’s not the reason, Pat.” Patton didn’t relent to his gaze. “Fine. Whatever. I won’t push it, but please tell me if you are alright, I just want to make sure you’re doing okay.”
“I’m fine Virge. Just something I can’t talk about yet without someone else’s permission. I pinky promise it’s nothing bad, just personal.” Virgil clearly wasn’t happy about it, but he turned back to what he was doing before Patton interrupted him.
“If you say so, Pat. Thanks for letting me rant.”
“Anytime. I’m going to go help Emmy down in the shop. Love you!” Patton smiled at the mumbled response and skipped down the stairs to the ice cream parlor.
Most days, the small ice cream parlor on the corner of Main and Sanders Streets wouldn’t intimidate Logan. Its name was quite literally a pun. (Did it have to be called Berry Sweet?) But today wasn’t most days. Today, his cheery partner was manning the counter. Logan wasn’t even sure that Roman knew about the parlor’s connection to his sworn enemy as of yet. He entered the shop just after Roman, seeing his partner’s face light up even more than it was previously. Gosh, Logan loved this boy. He sent a small smile to Patton, and, walking past Roman, went to the counter to order.
“Greetings, Patton. I would like a…”
“Medium pomegranate and blackberry sorbet? Coming right up, Lo!” Patton said with a wink. “And what would you like, sir?” Patton asked Roman. Roman’s jaw was figuratively on the floor.
“You two know each other? Are you friends? Why didn’t you tell me you had friends other than me?! How--” Roman was cut off by the sound of a door shutting and footsteps coming down a set of stairs that neither of the two cousins had noticed before. Logan and Patton exchanged slightly panicked glances and Patton started running to the stairs. Unfortunately, it was too late, as Virgil rounded the corner, shouting something about needing some help with a psych assignment. The two rivals made eye contact for a second before their faces shifted into something between worry and annoyance. "What are you doing here?" Roman asked with an edge to his voice.
"I live here. Where else would I be?" Virgil shot back with a smirk. Then he turned to Patton. "So, dear brother, what is hedonism?"
"The pursuit of happiness and nothing else," Patton replied instantly, exasperated eyes never moving from Logan's direction. Logan simply responded with a smirk to his partner, which went unseen by the two bickering boys.
"He is your brother?!?" Roman screeched. "But, you two are like… total opposites!"
"What can I say, I'm the weirdo in the family." Virgil snarked. "Pain in the ass, meet my twin brother, Patton. Patton, this is the bane of my existence, also known as Roman Prince."
"So that's how we're doing this, huh?" Roman sighed. "Emo nightmare, my cousin Logan. Logan, my Chemically Imbalanced Romance. He is informally known as Virgil Picani." Logan and Patton exchanged a long-suffering glance.
"Oookay kiddos, let's get back to the important stuff! Go upstairs, kiddo (“We’re twins, Pat…But alright, I’m going.”), I’ll help you with your work in a bit." Patton interrupted, “One medium pomegranate and blackberry sorbet for Lo and… what would you like Roman? A…medium raspberry and cherry sherbet?”
“How did you know my order so perfectly?!? You, my good sir, are truly magical.” Roman flailed his arms around in emphasis.
“I try my best!” Patton giggled. Logan smiled fondly before quickly smoothing out his expression.
“Well, we must be going, right Roman? We do not want to be home too late.” Logan interrupted. Roman pouted but turned to leave after one last grin at the bubbly boy behind the counter.
“Fine, fine, I’m going…” Roman groaned as he left the parlor, mumbling something about stupid cousins. Logan gently grabbed Patton’s hand across the counter, making Patton sigh.
"I wish we could be more open about this with our families, Lolo."
"I know, love, but it's just two more years until we can move out together and finally be open with everyone," Logan replied softly. He leaned over the counter to give his partner a quick peck on the lips, then looked at the glass countertop and sighed. "Roman forgot his sherbet. I will bring it to him. I truly appreciate your presence, Patton."
"Love you too Lolo!"
Logan walked out of the ice cream parlor with a small smile on his face, but that was quickly wiped away as he heard the door shut behind him. Seeing his cousin far down the sidewalk, he sighed and called out Roman's name, before speed-walking to catch up with him. "Seriously Roman?" he asked when he caught up, "What was that about?" Roman smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry! I got a little overzealous..."
"Obviously. Here is your sherbet," Logan sighed, "You need to stop forgetting things like this." Roman grinned.
"But why would I need to do that? I have a Logan!" Logan groaned and started walking toward Roman's house.
"Let's just go to your house. I had Uncle Valentino set up a celebration for after the ice cream."