Prinxiety Coffee Shop AU

Invitations And Solanum Lycopersicum

Roman's POV
"Hey, Virgil. How are you?" I ask, walking into the shop.
"Better than I could be, but simultaneously worse than I could be." he replied, not looking away from the drink he's making.
"Well, maybe an after-work activity might cheer you up? Logan, Joan and I are going to the fall festival and wanted to see if you would partake in the festivities?" I request.
He ponders for a moment before answering, "sure. I don't think I have anything else going on."
"Wonderful! When does your shift end?" I ask.
"Right after I make whatever complicated drink you want, Princey," he shrugged.
"Just a simple hot chocolate with extra whipped cream, please."
"Wow, Princey ordering something... normal? What size?"
"Venti, please. I don't always order complicated things, you know," I whine.
"Oh, please. That's your thing," he reasoned.
"Virgil, what happened to that other drink you were making?" I cautiously ask.
"Oh, shit!" he runs over to the frappaccino, now starting to melt.

Wow... I've never heard him curse before...

"Brian," Virgil called. A man walks over and takes the drink. He doesn't seem to mind the fact that the drink was a bit melty, so that's good.

After a few minutes, my actual name was called. That's new... Maybe it's because if all the people in here.

Nevertheless, I aquire my hot drink and sit down to work on a paper due next week.

Yes, he said that his shift is over once he makes my drink, but there's a long line of people now and he can't exactly just leave. I don't think anyone else is here yet.

So, I work on my paper. It's over Tim Burton and his unique film style. Man, I love Burton's films! The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, Edward Scissor Hands! I'm doing the paper over the colors, lighting, and the physically exaggerated characters and how they all play into the mystical worlds that can turn from whimsical to evil very quickly.

(I'm sorry, I have to write that for my L. A. class and I want to die)

After I finish the intro paragraph and re-write it a few times, the line is gone and I then notice Virgil is sitting next to me putting crown stickers on my jacket sleeve.

"Why are you doing that?" I ask.
"I wanted to see how long it would take for you to notice," he shrugged.
"Fair enough, how long have you been doing this?"
"One for every minute."
I silently counted 20 stickers.
"You could've snapped me out of it!" I didn't mean for him to wait that long on me!
"Nah, it's cool. You looked cute all focused on your paper," he smiled.
"Cute?" I awkwardly smile back, tilting my head.
"I'm not denying it," he replied, raising his hands defensively.
"Let's go, Joan and Logan are at my place waiting for us."

Virgil's POV
Cute? Cute?
Why did I call him cute?
Yeah, I certainly thought it, but I wasn't going to announce it!
I had to play it off, and now he probably thinks I'm weird...
Why do I care what he thinks? He's a friend... Friends are weird around each other... Right?
Oh well, I'm thinking too much. We're already here and I guess I missed out on quite the epic story.
"And that's how I plucked a chicken's feathers with a bottle of mustard."
"Interesting... How many people have you told that story to?" I ask.
"Just you," he replied.
"Maybe you should tell the others. I feel like you're depriving them." Maybe I could actually listen this time.
"Sure, if you really think it's worthy of a story time with the others. Or it could just be a story between us?" he suggested.
"Like a secret? It's a story, I feel like it should be shared."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe we'll have a secret some day..." he trailed off, pulling up to a house.
"Here we are!" Roman chirped, hopping out if his seat and opening the door just as I unbuckle the seat belt.
"Dude, how did you get over here so quickly?" I ask.
"I'm used to being gentleman-ly and opening the door for passengers," he replied as I stood up.
"Fair enough. Shall we go in?" I gesture to the front for.
"We shall," he nodded.

Stepping through the door felt like stepping into a Disney film. Everything was so colorful and clean. Not a single piece of trash or item out of place to be seen.

"You can take a seat on the chair, if you want. The living room is to your left if you continue walking in. Logan and Joan should already be there." Roman walked upstairs.

I head towards the living room, or what I believe the living room is, considering the voices going back and forth saying stuff like "mom" "dad" "father" "Darth Vader" "lightsaber" and so on.

I walk in as the word "child" was said and the talking ceased.

They both looked me up and down before the guy in the beanie, who I'm assuming is Joan, gives Logan a look.
With a small nod from Logan, Joan looks back at me and smiles.

"Hey, you're Virgil, right? I'm Joan," he says, reaching his hand out.
"Yeah, I'm Virgil. Nice to meet you." I shake his hand.

"Would you like to play with us?" Logan asks me, adjusting his glasses
"What are you playing?" I reply.
"Word association games." Joan answers.
"Oh, like, you say something, I say something that relates, he says something that relates?" I finish, looking at Joan.
"Yup! Let's start. Tomato."-Joan
"Solanum lycopersicum." -Logan
"Science."-Me
"Math."-Joan
"Pythagorean Therom."-Logan
"Triangles." -Me
Just then, Roman walked in.
"Really? He just got here and you already got him to play your word association games?" he complained.
No one answered, but Logan and Joan just smiled.
Roman sighed.
"Let's just go to the festival, you idiots."