Sanders' Sides Oneshots 2

Tallies (Prince x Anxiety)

Prompt. AU (this ended up a lot longer than I expected lol)

Almost everyone had at least one tally mark. Clearly not every person in the world, as there were those who hadn't yet fallen in love, or those who were scared to fall in love, or those who simply didn't experience romantic love.

Every one who had fallen in love had one, though. The tally marks first appear as red, which typically means that the love is unrequited. Those are the tallies no one wants to appear on their wrists. If the feelings are returned, however, then the tally mark is black. Those were the marks almost everyone hoped to see one day.

Some people had no tallies, or very few of them. This was common for younger kids and teenagers, but it wasn't impossible to see adults with none. Some people had a few tallies on their arms, common for older teens or adults. Some people fell in love too easily, and had no room left on their arms.

Virgil was one of the kids with no tally marks on his arms. It didn't effect his life, and he tried not to think about it too much. When he couldn't help but think about it though, he thought about how terrifying it would be to be in love with someone. Especially someone who didn't love you back.

He wouldn't say it was the thing he feared most, but getting a red mark was definitely high up on his list. Or getting a mark at all. Love was painful, and a lot of the time it only ended in heartbreak. He didn't know if he wanted to experience the good parts of it if it meant it would lead to the bad.

Virgil sighed, shaking away his thoughts and tugging on his jacket. He didn't have time to sit and think about things like this, he was going to be late for school and he didn't feel like getting in trouble that day. He made his way out of the house, still finding his thoughts drifting back to the same place.

****

Another day at school, exactly the same as it always was. Boring as hell.

Virgil kept his gaze on the floor beneath him as he made his way to his next class, wanting to get there as soon as possible. By the time he saw another pair of shoes enter his line of sight it was too late to stop, and he collided with another student. The two of them were sent tumbling backwards onto the ground, papers flying.

"Shit," Virgil hissed, jumping up and gathering up his papers, not looking at the other student. "Listen, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going, I'm in a hurry and-"

He paused, seeing a hand offering him the rest of the papers he had yet to pick up. He followed the hand up to an arm covered in tally marks, all red ones, then up to the face of the other student, breath catching in his throat. The boy holding out his papers wore a kind grin, his brown eyes shining. "It's alright, no worries! I wasn't looking where I was going anyways, really I should be the one apologizing."

"I... uh, should've been paying attention too..." Virgil mumbled, taking the papers from him and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. The boy smirked, making Virgil's heart flutter.

"You said you were in a hurry, yes? Better get going." He warned, and Virgil seemed to only then remember where he was. He nodded, holding onto his papers tighter and heading off after apologizing once more, feeling bad for leaving him to pick up his own papers after he had helped Virgil gather his.

The second he made it to class Virgil sank into his chair, sighing and putting his head in his hands. He felt so stupid, getting so embarrassed just because the guy was cute. He dwelled on it for a while before deciding it was probably better to make sure he had gotten all of the papers he needed, going through each of them.