Sanders Sides One Shots

Dinner

Ship: Prinxiety
AU: Human AU and Virgil is Trans
TW: coming out
Writen by: John Laurens on Amino (link to og post: http://aminoapps.com/p/tkov5z)

“Now, remember what I said,” Virgil says quietly. “My name is Virginia, and I’m… use she/her pronouns.”

“V, you should just come out,” Roman replies.

“Not here. Not now. Another time.”

They follow Virgil’s parents into the dining room. His father, Patton, suggested that Roman come over so they could meet him. Now, here they were, and they’re already keeping secrets.

They sit down at the dinner table. Virgil looks down disdainfully at the dress his mother helped him pick out for the occasion. He’d rather be in his hoodie, or at least a button down and slacks, but seeing he hasn’t come out to his parents yet, he can’t do that.

Patton made fried chicken and some mac and cheese, and everyone starts by eating quietly. The silence hangs int the air, surrounding all of them. It seems to slowly squeeze the air out of Virgil’s lungs. He glances over at Roman and motions with his eyes to say something. He gives a minute shake of his head.

Patton saves them. “So, Roman, I heard you’re in the school play,” he remarks.

Roman brightens up. He loves talking about the theater. “Yeah, I am! I don’t have the main role, but I’m one of the important side characters. I get to wear this really cool prince costume, too! The show is in two weeks, and Virgi- Virginia here has been helping me with my lines.” He almost said Virgil, but caught himself just in time.

Virgil’s mother, Tara, doesn’t notice. “That sounds lovely! Do you have any singing parts?”

He nods vigorously. “I join in on choruses, but I also have a song mostly to myself. You see, the thing with our school is that some of the plays are written by a group of students in the Writing Club. They wrote this one. It’s about a servant boy who is best friends with the prince, me. And when a princess comes to meet the prince, she falls for him instead. But little do they know, the prince fell for the servant boy too. But the prince ends up having to marry a princess. It’s a rather interesting role to play.”

“That sounds really cool! It’s pretty brave of the school to put on a play like that. It sounds like you’re really good at acting,” Patton remarks.

“He is,” Virgil says with a smile. “One of the many things I love about him.” The two of them exchange a smile.

“What else do you like to do?” Tara asks.

“When I’m not at play rehearsal, I like to write and draw. But most of my time is being taken up by rehearsal, schoolwork, and Virginia.”

“You know, I was in a school play once,” Tara remarks.

Virgil puts his head in his hands. “Mom, are we really going to talk about this again?” She’s told this story so, so many times that he has gotten sick of it.

“I want to hear the story!” Roman says, which doesn’t help.

She smiles. “Well. My school was doing Romeo and Juliet, and I decided to sign up for Juliet. I didn’t expect to get the role, but I did! My time was suddenly filled with rehearsing. My boyfriend at the time got so sick of me not being able to hang out with him, that he dumped me. And a good thing, too, because-”

“That’s when I met Patton,” Virgil and his mom say at the same time. He’s heard the story so much he knows exactly what she is going to say next. Virgil continues, “He was a stagehand, he helped you with some of your lines, you started dating, blah blah blah.”

Roman puts a hand to his heart. “That’s so romantic. You know, Virginia said h- she might join a play in the future.”

Virgil scoffs. “I’d never get the roll.”

“Hey, you don’t know that!”

“Uh huh, okay Princey,” he says with a smile.

The energy at the table seems a lot more relaxed now. There isn’t as much tension and awkwardness.

“I’m sure you’d get the role my dark and stormy knight,” he teases.

“Yeah, Virginia,” his father says. “You’re pretty good at acting.”

His face begins to turn slightly pink. “I am not.”

“Sure you are! You used to put on little plays for us when you were little,” his mom says.

He sinks down in his chair slightly. “Please don’t,” he mumbles.

Roman raises his eyebrows. “I’d love to hear this story.”

Virgil sinks down more as his mother begins to tell the story. “When Virginia was around five, she would get all of her dress up stuff and put on a show for us. She would wear her sparkly pink princess dress, and whenever she played a boy she would tie a blanket around her shoulders like a cape.”

Roman laughs. “I can’t even imagine Virgil wearing a pink dress.”

Virgil freezes up, and Roman realizes too late what he’s just said.

His parents exchange a glance. “Virgil?”

Roman acts like he’s confused. Looks like those acting lessons were good for something. “Did I say that? I thought I said Virginia. I must have confused him for one of my other friends.” Then, he realizes he just said “him”.

Virgil shoots him a deadly glare as he says in a calm tone, “Oh yeah, Virgil is a nice person.”

His parents exchange another glance. Then Patton asks, “Virginia? Is there something you’re not telling us?”

“No,” he says a little too quickly.

“Virginia, dear,” his mother says softly. “You can tell us.”

Virgil swallows the lump in his throat and looks over at Roman. He gives him a small smile and takes his hand. He mouths “It’s going to be okay”.

He looks down and fiddles with the heam of his dress. “Mom, dad, there is… there is something I should tell you.”

“Is everything alright?” Tara asks, worry creeping into her voice.

“Yeah, I just, um…” He takes a deep breath. “I’m trans,” he says quickly.

It takes all of Patton’s willpower not to make a dad joke.

“And I want to go by Virgil.” He squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to see their reaction.

He’s surprised when he feels arms wrap around him. He looks up to see his mother hugging him. “Oh, sweetie,” she says.

Virgil begins to tear up. “P-please don’t hate me,” he says. “Please don’t kick me out.”

“Oh, honey,” his mom says. “We’d never kick you out for being yourself.”

His father comes around the table to hug him. “We fully support you,” he says. “Son.”

Tears start to fall down Virgil’s face. “I’ve waited so long to hear you say that,” he sobs. “A-and… would I be able to get top surgery?”

“Oh, of course dear,” his mother says. She pulls away, tears in her eyes.

Patton pulls away too. “I’m glad you told us.”

Virgil looks at Roman, tears in his eyes. Without warning, he engulfs his boyfriend in a hug. “Thank you,” he says quietly.

“I love you,” he murmurs.

“I love you too.”