Love and War || A Sanders Sides AU

Chapter Seven

EYYYYYY IMA BACK WITH MORE HEARTBREAKING ANGST!! y'all it all goes downhill from here I'm so sorry

WARNINGS: manipulation, PTSD, mentions of non-con, non-consensual touching, intense dissociation, mention of previous suicide, food mentions, Unsympathetic Patton

Yee let's get this party going *evil laughter*

With Logan and Virgil back, things more or less returned to normal. Roman wished he could say everything went back to normal, but he couldn't. He couldn't help but notice Patton always tried to cuddle next to him when they did cuddle piles. He couldn't help but remember what had happened and wonder why it had. He kept having nightmares - not every night anymore, but he did. And in the early mornings, when he woke up to help Patton make breakfast, Patton would always kiss him a little too deeply for comfort, and keep his hands on Roman's waist and hips for a little too long.

But it was fine. Patton loved him, after all. And he couldn't possibly know it was making Roman uncomfortable - which might be because Roman had given up on telling him. What was he supposed to do? Tell his boyfriend that he didn't want to be touched at all? When Patton held off from touching him, it had been almost worse than when he did.

Not only that, but the things that were happening weren't exactly bad. Any normal couple in the world would do these things, and they'd be fine. So Roman couldn't exactly complain.

The business trip had gone really well, at least. Virgil and Logan were happy and excited about where it was going, and they would talk about it through dinner and Roman would try his best to understand what they were talking about. He didn't understand how computer programming and website design worked, which he voiced aloud one day as they were out for coffee during the day.

"You realize I don't understand most of this, right?" he asked. Logan smiled, kissing his forehead gently.

"Want us to explain?"

"Nope." Roman backtracked, shaking his head with a laugh.

"I have been meaning to talk to you," Virgil piped up. Roman groaned. "Calm down. I was wondering if you have a website of your own yet."

"Why would I want a website?" Roman asked incredulously. "I have social media, I'm fine." Virgil rolled his eyes.

"For your writing, obviously." he took a sip of his coffee and shrugged. "A lot of authors have websites featuring their life story, that is if you'd want something like that, a question and answer page, links to buy their books. Stuff like that."

"I don't have one of those." Roman laughed softly. "I just have the info from the publishers and a stat page so I know how it's doing."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about!" Virgil beamed. "You're getting pretty popular with Young Adults and stuff, and two of your boyfriends own a company that creates good websites."

"If you don't say so yourself." Roman joked.

"I'm serious, Roman." Virgil sighed.

"It could be very beneficial," Logan added, eyes shining in amusement. "Especially as you start publishing more."

"Yeah," Roman had to concede he was right. He was getting close to a rewrite of one of his smaller stories - a realistic fiction instead of the usual fantasy. "So you want to make me a website?"

"You can help," Virgil said.

"I don't know anything about websites, Virge." Roman chuckled, finishing off his drink. "But the publishers been hounding me about my 'public image' for a while, and that could probably help out some."