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The first gift Virgil had ever given Roman was a sparkling rainbow beaded bracelet, or, it was meant to be a bracelet. He remembers sitting with his Papa as they carefully put the beads in order of the rainbow and accidentally putting too many beads on the string.
So what was meant to be a bracelet became a necklace.
A necklace that Roman wore for every birthday party afterwards.
10 whole years of wearing that necklace. One would think he would forget about it, hard nope.
Virgil doubted he would ever make another present like that. One that Roman would cherish forever. That may be why for 10 years after that bracelet, Virgil had only gifted Roman books.
The books were highly appreciated, as Roman loved reading and escaping into the magical world of a fictional story.
Though Virgil didn't think it was enough for this year. This year, Roman would turn 16. A sweet sixteen birthday gift could not be a book, Virgil decided. And so he decided to look for a gift more suitable.
It was 3am in the morning. Roman's birthday was officially tommorrow and Virgil had still not found anything to give him. He glared at his laptop screen as he scrolled through the website of a local store that him and Roman visited every weekend.
The store was decently sized and had a variety of products, every month it would have a different theme, this month being pride of course, and always smelt of vanilla when they walked in, creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere around the store. Moreso for Roman than himself. Virgil had a love hate relationship with vanilla.
When he was around 14, Virgil had started helping his dad and uncle out with the bakery. Which meant he had to learn how to bake and work with vanilla extract.
Vanilla extract.
Too much and it would taste gross, too little and the pastry wouldn't taste as good as it would with the extract. And it's only supposed to be added to certain recipes.
It took almost two weeks for Virgil to stop adding too much of the stuff.
Baking wasn't his strongsuit, clearly. In his opinion at least. Not only because of the vanilla extract situation, there was more.
So much more.
Virgil shuddered and shook his head, pushing the thoughts away. Birthday present.
He needed to find a good birthday present.
He knew he had to get something from their favourite store, the problem lied with what he should get. Roman always became stricken with awe when they walked in, with everything inside the store, which made it hard to narrow his choices down. Virgil groaned as quietly as he could, he leaned over to his desk to grab one of his journals.
He wrote down a quick list of what Roman really liked, what he had learned about Roman from 10 years of friendship.
Roman loved sparkly things, Roman loved adventure, he loved fantastical stories, pretty clothing, his own face, cookies from the bakery, colourful things, trinkets of all sorts, suncatchers, mythology, dragons, witches, art, drama and of course, men.
Virgil stared at his list. What could he do with all of this?
Plenty of things really.
His dad would know what to do. That old man was great at thinking about what others would want.
Virgil would've loved to get his input on gift giving, however it was 3am in the morning.
Oh.
Right.
It was 3am in the morning.
Virgil closed his laptop and rolled off of his bed, heading towards the livingroom with his journal in hand.
And as expected, his dad was sitting on the couch, alone, eating the rest of the chocolate ice cream that was set to expire in two days. As Virgil approached, he looked up and smiled widely.
"Hey kiddo! Here to join me?"
Virgil returned his smile and shook his head, sitting down next to him. "No. Just wanted to ask you something."
"Of course sweetie!"
Virgil passed the journal over to him. "It's Roman's birthday tomorrow."
His dad raised an eyebrow and read the page with a small nod. "It is! I'm assuming you don't have a gift yet?"
"Nope. It's his sweet sixteen and I uh, want to give him something special. Maybe something that includes all of this? I was thinking of getting it from our favourite store." Virgil leaned back into the couch as he explained. His dad hummed in thought, staring at the page for a few more seconds before looking back up at him.
"Well, I'm not sure if you can get him a man for his birthday, however, everything else is possible!" His dad winked at him, Virgil groaned playfully, fighting back a smile.
"Shush. Serious time, please." Virgil mumbled. His dad laughed and nodded.
"Alright, alright. Okay. Well, I think, instead of getting him one singular gift, you should get him multiple gifts that make up one big gift! Like a care package, but he's not going away."
Virgil slowly nodded. That was a good idea. A box of everything Roman loved? Of things that remind him of Roman?
Roman would love a cheesy sentimental gift like that.
Virgil smiled and took his journal back, grabbing a pen from the coffee table left from his uncle's last visit.
"Thank's pops. I think I got it now."
"Awesomesauce, uhm, don't you think you should plan out your little gift box later instead of now? It's about- Oh holy crumbs 3am? It's 3am, we should both get some sleep eh? I must've gotten lost in the moment, this movie series is way too good." His dad laughed nervously.
"I'd rather get it planned now so I can spend the rest of the day shopping." Virgil shrugged.
"Ooh, good idea. Guess we can stay up for a bit longer, but only half an hour! You need to sleep." His dad lightly ruffled his hair, Virgil laughed and nodded.
Half an hour.
He could plan this in half an hour.
Virgil wrote out the basics, the store he wanted to go to, the budget so he wouldn't spend his entire allowance on Roman's birthday gift, everything he could think of off the top of his head that Roman would enjoy, a small criteria for items.
After half an hour, he had two pages full of small notes about what to get. Nothing too detailed, as he wasn't as much of a creative thinker, unlike Roman.
He went to bed, determined.
The determined feeling stayed when he woke up at 9am, way too early in his opinion, for a Saturday, even though he was awake at 3am. He needed to be awake now, so that he could take his sweet time getting ready and eating pancakes, if he let himself sleep in until say 1pm, the store would close.
The store couldn't close.
And so Virgil got ready, threw on his dark clothing, didn't try with brushing his hair as usual. He walked out to quickly eat the delicious apple and cinnamon pancakes his father had made and engage in some nice family conversation before brushing his teeth and grabbing his stuff.
10am. That was the time he had set out to leave the house to his favourite store. Why did it take so long? Family conversation time usually took up most of his morning routine on weekends, they had alot to talk about together.
It only took him around 15 minutes to reach the store.
The glass windows happily displayed several pride themed outfits and products, bags, beanies, one black hoodie with a stitch like pattern along the sleeves and the gay flag embroidered in the shape of a heart on the chest catching his attention immediately.
He would get his hands on that hoodie, 100%, this shopping trip was about Roman though. He would feed his emo soul another day.
As he walked into the store, he was immediately hit with that familiar vanilla scent, and of course, rainbow imagery. Seriously, the amount of pride products gracing this store was enough to give his grandpa a heart attack.
Virgil chuckled at the thought.
He wandered around the store, checking the first item on his list. If he was going to give him multiple things, he obviously needed a pretty box or bag to put said things into.
And almost immediately, he found the perfect one.
A white box with a pattern of red petals scattered randomly around it. This, paired with a sparkly red ribbon, would be 'just divine' as Roman would say.
Next stop was the glass statue aisle. The one aisle where Roman spent most of his time staring at the beautiful statues sitting above very large labels warning customers to not touch the glass, and any broken statues would need to be paid for.
Virgil was always too scared to step into this aisle, in fear of accidentally breaking the statues, so he would usually wander around while Roman looked at said statues.
Roman wasn't here this time.
In for 4, hold for 7, out for 8.
And he stepped into the aisle. Everything would be fine, he wouldn't break anything, and if he did, he had the card his dad had given him for emergencies.
Working with glass in a bakery is one of the main things to be cautious of. And they had alot of glass equipment.
This is just like that! Sort of.
Virgil scanned the shelves, a large variety of glass animals and mythical creatures shone slightly in the flourescent light of the store.
One in particular, one extremely colourful statue, caught his eye. He quickly but carefully walked over to it, not daring to reach out and hold it in his hand.
It was so damn beautiful.
A mermaid, sitting on a rock, coloured in lovely, stunning pinks, whites, oranges that mixed with eachother perfectly. It reminded him of the sunset, or the lesbian flag. Roman would absolutely love it.
Carefully and cautiously, Virgil took the statue from the shelf and placed it inside the box to stop himself from accidentally dropping it.
What's next?
A suncatcher.
And he already knew what he wanted to give him.
There was a suncatcher that Roman would always lightly touch as they walked past the aisle, one with two hoops containing a beautiful clear gem in the middle and more gems shaped like teardrops going down the chain, hanging from a beautiful silver rose.
Roman already had two suncatchers at home, though Virgil was incredibly certain that Roman planned on buying more.
Another perfect find, maybe he wasn't as bad at gift giving as he thought.
As he walked through the store, he picked up more and more little things that he thought Roman would absolutely adore, practically one thing from each aisle.
This was definitely going over his budget, however he couldn't bring himself to care, and the box was almost overflowing with trinkets and such.
He decided that it was enough. That he had spent enough money and it was time to pay before he could make his wallet cry even more.
Though one thing made him stop in his tracks. One thing he absolutely had to get Roman.
Virgil ended up spending almost 40 dollars on Roman.
He would have to work at the bakery for longer hours to pay his dad back.
Awesome.
When he got home, he told his dad and his father about his shopping trip as he tied the box up with the ribbon. His dad had almost cried from the gift, mumbling something about sweets and such.
His dad always cried at gestures like this, it seemed.
He just hoped Roman would feel the same way about his gift. Of course he wouldn't want to make Roman cry, he just wanted to make Roman so happy that tears would potentially come out.
Virgil hardly slept that night.
He decided to get ready to head to Roman's house at 5am. He wasn't going to go at 5am of course, it was just good to be ready. And he needed to mentally and physically prepare himself as well as the gift he had planned to give to Roman.
The box and the small glittery unicorn bag holding the shirt he had grabbed last minute.
Virgil left the house a few hours later, taking his sweet time walking over to Roman's house and standing in front of his door. On his doorstep. In the best clothing he could find in his closet. Holding the box and the bag carefully in his hands, wondering how the hell he was going to knock on the door or ring the doorbell.
"Is that a raven I see? Pecking around at my doorstep?" A voice shouted from above, no doubt from Roman's room. From Roman's mouth.
"Yes. Now get down here birthday boy." Virgil shouted back.
"Right away Edgar, right away."
"Edgar?"
"Like, as in Edgar Allan Poe? The Raven? Virgil. Don't mess with me. It's illegal." Roman's voice grew slightly distant, meaning he was walking away from his window, meaning he would soon be at the door. In Virgil's face.
When Roman opened the door, Virgil couldn't help but smile.
"It's not illegal to mess with you."
"It is when it's my birthday! A day of celebraIFORGOTYOURNECKLACE!" Roman shrieked, putting a hand on his chest before rushing back into the house. "GET INSIDE DANTE'S INFERNO! MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME!"
Virgil rolled his eyes and walked into the house, making his way into the livingroom and sitting right down on the couch, on the spot he had claimed, unspokenly of course.
He could hold the box more carefully now that he had his legs as a support. Good. There was glass in there. Now, he had less of a chance of breaking it.
Roman soon came flying back down the stairs, wearing his signature rainbow necklace.
"You come bearing gifts, I presume?" Roman quickly sat next to Virgil, smiling widely.
"Why, of course. Must we speak in such formal tone?" Virgil smirked, handing him the box first.
"Yes, indeed." Roman giggled as he carefully took the ribbon off of the box, slowly and with much dramatic gusto, lifting the lid.
Virgil watched as his eyes widened, sparkling with glee, he felt the anxiety over Roman's reaction to the gift get washed away, he sighed in relief.
"Oooh this is so cool! Aww, lesbian mermaid! Is this that one suncatcher? Oh Virgil! You shouldn't have! Is this..just a magnet saying that I'm gay?"
Virgil shrugged with a soft smile. "Pride month."
Roman nodded. "Pride month. Thank you Virgil! This is the best gift I could ever ask for!" Roman pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, setting the box down on the coffee table in front of them and holding his arms out. "C'mere you!"
Virgil shoved the bag into his arms. "You still have another one. Are you sure it's the best gift?"
"Oooh goodie! Uhm, yes? It is? This is literally a box of heaven? Don't doubt yourself?" Roman spoke as if it were obvious that he loved the gifts to an extremely high extent already.
Virgil really should've known that Roman would be happy with anything.
"Glad you like them."
"I love them, VirgOHHHH!" Roman gasped as he held the shirt up. "YOU GOT ME A SHIRT!"
Virgil blinked in surprise, nodding. "Uh, yeah, I did."
Roman started to giggle and squeal, jumping up. Proceeding to pull off his own shirt to wear the one Virgil had gifted him. Virgil yelped in utter horror.
"Dude!"
"What? You've seen me shirtless countless times." Roman scoffed.
"I'd like a warning before you start stripping in front of me, that's all. Y'know, like a normal person would."
Roman rolled his eyes and twirled around. "Whatever, how do I look?"
The shirt wasn't too much. Just a plain white T-Shirt.
What got Virgil's attention was the gay flag in front of it, with flames along the bottom corners and a dragon on the side. On the bottom, it just read 'men'.
He thought it was perfect. Though, something that chaotic would naturally fit Remus more.
Roman was about as chaotic as Remus however, his chaos was just in a different, more fancy font.
"Good."
"Just good? Not hot?" Roman laughed at his own joke.
Virgil just smiled at him, not bothering to acknowledge his humour.
Though, when Roman pouted at him after no signs of laughter, Virgil gave him a small 'ha'. Which Roman gladly took. The rest of the day consisted of Roman bragging about his gifts from Virgil to his dad and brother, a whipped cream eating contest, ghost stories from Virgil himself and Remus in an attempt to freak Roman out, which worked and ended in them both being assaulted with pillows for creeping him out on his birthday. Watching at least five or so disney movies with karaoke in between.
And it ended with a nice, strawberry sponge cake from the bakery. Made with extra love and strawberries and extra care due to the twins' peanut allergy.
Virgil, Roman and Remus sat on the roof of their house, staring up at the stars as they ate their respective slices of cake.
"Ugggh, Virge, you gotta convince your dad to give me a truckload of this shit." Remus sighed, leaning back on the tiles of the roof.
"Yeah sure. On your birthday, maybe."
"Sweet." Remus licked the paper plate his slice used to be on.
"Hm. I wonder if that's why.."
Both Remus and Virgil turned to Roman, incredibly confused.
"What?"
"The fuck are you talkin' about?"
They both mumbled, at the same time.
Roman laughed and shrugged. "They call it a sweet sixteen. I'm wondering if that means it's supposed to be sweet."
"Like your experience at sixteen is supposed to be sweet or your sixteenth birthday?" Remus sat up properly to face Roman and Virgil more.
"I guess just the birthday? It's only the birthday part that gets called sweet right?" Roman shrugged.
"Right." Virgil slowly nodded. "I mean, sixteen. Almost an adult, calm before the storm. You haven't hit your teenage angst phase yet, maybe this year is the year."
"Hell no."
Virgil laughed at Roman's immediate response. "It's not that bad."
"Don't drag me into the dark side, emo Darth Vader." Roman playfully glared at Virgil, who scoffed.
"Fiine." Virgil gave him a smile before turning to the stars. It was a waxing gibbous night tonight. "I think they call it a sweet sixteen because of the alliteration. I can't think of anything else it could mean."
"Ew. You sound like your uncle."
"What's wrong with my uncle?"
"He's a nerd. An old man nerd. Worst kind of nerd." Roman shrugged.
Virgil shook his head.
Roman chuckled. "Well, whatever it means. I hope all of my birthdays are exactly like this one."
Virgil turned to Roman, watching as the moonlight caught on every plane of his face, he hugged his knees, resting his cheek on top of them with a small nod.
And so, the three spent the rest of the night, sitting under the stars, in comfortable silence.