Colorful

Theater Nerds

Once lunch was over, Roman gave Virgil's hand a quick, gentle squeeze, pressing an innocent kiss to his cheek before bidding him goodbye. There was still three periods left in the day, and he didn't have any afternoon classes with Virgil, so he would have to wait to see him again until rehearsal after school.

As he watched Roman leave, Virgil lifted his hand to his cheek, gently touching the spot Roman had touched. He was pretty sure his face was on fire, and he was going to literally explode.

Who gave Roman the right to be so cute?

Virgil spent the rest of the day unable to stop thinking about the kiss to his cheek, even through all of his classes. It was too bad that he only had a morning class and lunch with Roman, because he found himself really wanting to see him. He tried to catch glimpses of him in the hallway between classes, and he felt his heart skip a beat when their paths crossed and Roman grinned at him between classes. Those little moments were like heaven in themselves, and soon enough, it was time for rehearsal.

He sat in the audience, not being needed as a tech today. He really didn't even need to come to rehearsal today, but he was the only tech who showed up whether or not he was needed.

His favorite part of watching was getting to see Roman goof off between scenes.

Don't get him wrong - he loved watching the incredible acting - but Roman's characters were usually pretty stoic or generally sad, and Roman was just a bundle of joy between scenes, wiggling or dancing absent-mindedly as he joked and laughed with the other actors.

When Roman's scene was over, Virgil crept backstage to say hi. The blond was laughing and joking with one of the ensemble members when Virgil approached, and as soon as he saw him, he waved a goodbye to the other before turning to face Virgil.

"Having fun?" Roman joked with a small chuckle.

"Loads. I've got to say... your level of eloquence has severely dropped today... I wonder what absolutely handsome boy could be causing it," he teasingly commented, leaning against the wall in front of Roman, who rolled his eyes slightly, a blush painting his cheeks.

Roman had tripped over his feet more times than he cared to admit during rehearsal so far. He usually didn't have that problem, but every time he'd glanced out into the audience and had seen Virgil watching him, he'd gotten inwardly flustered and broken character and tripped over his feet and stumbled over his words. This boy was going to be the death of him.

"You know, it might be that new ensemble member, Patrick," he teased jokingly with a smirk. "Solid ten out of ten." He looked at Virgil, stepping closer so they weren't in anyone's way. This, of course, had Roman nearly pressing against him, which had Virgil inwardly suffering from a gay panic as he feigned offense.

"Sure," the emo scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "And I'm sure Patrick feels all your pain, too. I swear, you had some of the weirdest injuries."

"Yeah... I'm sorry about that. I picked fights a lot more before I realized that my soulmate felt the pain, too." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, recalling the countless fights he had instigated in middle school.

"Don't sweat it, Princey. You got me out of class a lot. But I am curious... freshman year, what was that pain in the middle of my forehead? My head was throbbing practically the whole day."

"I was an idiot and decided to try to make a basket in gym class by throwing the ball straight up, and it landed on my face." He snorted in laughter at his own athletic ineptitude, glad that he no longer had to deal with gym class.

Virgil grinned. "You? Play basketball? Oh my god, you are too cute..."

Roman's cheeks flushed at the compliment and he had to bite his lip to keep himself from smiling too widely. "Steering away from the fact that I only had a basketball because it was gym class and it was either that or playing flag football, which I certainly was not doing..." He laughed a little, raising his eyebrows with a smirk. "You think I'm cute?"

Virgil was sure his blush had to be darker than humanly possible by now. He opened his mouth to say something, and when all that came out of him was a quiet, albeit embarrassing, squeak, he closed it again. "I...I, uh..." he stuttered after a moment before chewing on his lip, looking over Roman's face. "Of course, idiot."

And the smile that tugged at Roman's lips at that nearly had Virgil swooning right then and there.

Who the hell gave him the right to be so absolutely adorable?

Roman reached forward then and brushed back Virgil's bangs from his eyes, his fingers just barely brushing against his skin in a feather-light touch that sent shivers up Virgil's spine. "I think you're cute, too, you perfect emo nightmare," he teased quietly before leaning in towards him.

Virgil was going to die.

He was going to literally have a heart attack right here and now, his gaze flickering down to Roman's lips as he leaned close.

Was Roman really going to kiss him?

They had only known they were soulmates for a couple hours, but Virgil became aware of just how very much he wanted that, his eyes beginning to slip shut as his entire body thrummed in anticipation.

Closer...

Closer......

And the director called next scene, making Roman freeze.

Fuck.

"That's my cue," he whispered, wincing apologetically. He quickly kissed Virgil's cheek before rushing on stage, leaving behind his rather flustered and deeply blushing soulmate.

"Break a leg," he called after Roman, and then quickly added, "Actually, please don't. Don't do that."

As Virgil slipped back into the audience, he did his best to ignore the panic fluttering in his chest - because that was what it had to be, right? Panic? How else could he explain the twisting, fluttering feeling in his stomach when Roman touched him, or the way his knees practically buckled when he spoke?

Though... he knew what it was.

And it wasn't fair that it was this easy.

He'd felt this way before - or similar to it, rather - back in Sophomore year, and that hadn't been easy. Why did it make sense that this was?

By the time the director decided to call it a day, they had managed to get through a few scenes without Roman breaking character with a lovesick grin. Nowhere near as many as they wanted, but enough to satisfy them. Roman grinned across the auditorium towards Virgil, and jumped down from the stage, bracing himself for the landing - which they were both glad didn't hurt more than a brief tingle - before approaching the emo.

Virgil gave a smile, trying to push away the fluttery feeling in his stomach at Roman being so eager to get to him that he had to jump off the stage rather than using the stairs ten feet away like a normal person. He got to his feet and stepped into the aisle to greet him. There was nobody coming this way - everyone else using the side aisle to get to the exit - so they didn't have to worry about blocking anything.

"Did you have plans now that rehearsal is done? I'm heading to the coffee shop down the street and I was wondering if you might want to join me," Roman offered with a smile that may or may not have held a trace of nervousness.

"Nope."

"No to having plans, or no to joining me?"

Virgil rolled his eyes with a snorting chuckle, and grabbed Roman's hand, threading their fingers together without a moment's hesitation.

"Come on, Princey."