Warnings: none

this is... an old one

pls comments?? 👉👈

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Virgil squinted at the streaks of sunshine that broke through the crown of the trees, caught in the morning mist that was beginning to evaporate as the sun was slowly warming the world. He pulled his hoodie tighter around himself, having no plan to ever admit that he was a bit cold.

Leaves laid tangled in between pine needles that sprouted from grey twigs, covering the ground and slowly falling through the air. Yellow, green, red, orange and brown and slowly decaying where the wind had carried them until they got stuck.

Virgil flinched as a leafless branch almost smacked him in the face and he sent an annoyed glare towards Roman who was walking a few steps before him.

"Hey! Watch it." He mumbled. "You're going to end up sticking my eyes out."

"Sorry." Roman slowed down a bit until he was next to Virgil, reaching out and grabbing his hand. Virgil allowed him to entwine their fingers but pretended not to really think of it even though the small action had Virgil feeling as if there was something fluttering in his chest.

It still surprised him sometimes, just the fact that he felt this way for Roman. Even more that Roman felt the same and wanted a relationship with him.

Virgil glanced between the tree trunks, branches and bushes. Nothing living could be seen or heard, except for birds in the treetops chirping as if it was spring and not late autumn. Other than that the only sounds were the slight breeze in the trees rustling the leaves and the crunch under their boots as they stepped on twigs and dried leaves.

He whipped his head around as something rushed through the leaves and he caught sight of a rabbit that zoomed between the tree trunks and disappeared into a thick bush. He saw Roman's amused smile as he turned back.

"You've got nothing to worry about, Virgil." Roman said, not condescending, not rude, only reassuring and soft but Virgil scoffed anyway.

"I'm not worried." He said.

"Are you sure about that?" Roman raised his brows and Virgil pretended not to see him.

"All I'm saying is that if a big animal attacks us and we die in the middle of nowhere in this forest then I'm never forgiving you." Virgil said quickly, almost stumbling on his words. Roman stilled, pulling Virgil to a stop too.

"I promise you that nothing larger than a deer is prowling these forests, I created the animals myself and know what exists and what doesn't." He said, his words actually calming Virgil a bit. Roman lifted their clasped together hands up to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the back of Virgil's hand and Virgil ducked his head so his hood would hide how flustered he was.

"Right, well, you also frequently run around in the imagination to fight a dragon witch, so excuse me if I don't feel completely calmed by your words." Virgil just had to argue a little bit, mostly to let out his annoyance at the fact that Roman had made him blush, not because Roman actually had him reeling with anxiety. Not this time at least.

(A few weeks ago when Roman had showed up to Virgil's room to confess his feelings he'd been nervous enough for Virgil to actually think something was seriously wrong, and when he had finally gotten his confession out then Virgil had been so relieved to know that no one was dying that his first reaction was to just slump against Roman and call him a 'pretty idiot', which, now in hindsight, Roman had started to think was very funny and Virgil had continued to think was very embarrassing.)

"Let's continue, we're there soon." Roman said, and Virgil quirked a brow but asked nothing as they continued on their way through the woods. 

All Roman had said earlier about this was that he wanted Virgil to come with him on a walk, which was the only reason why Virgil was up and out of bed at ten in the morning, he hadn't thought their walk had a destination.

Despite not wanting to Virgil did find himself curiously wondering where they were headed.

"Where are we going?" He asked in an attempt to get Roman to admit if there was anything special about this walk of theirs. Roman only glanced at him with a smile, saying nothing, which Virgil took as a confirmation that they were headed somewhere that was at least somewhat interesting.

"Alright then, keep your secrets." Virgil said with a roll of his eyes. The fact that Roman didn't seem to catch the reference made him slightly disappointed.

"Give it two more minutes." Roman nudged Virgil slightly, then beginning to talk about this play that he wanted Thomas to play a lead role in, rambling on about how amazing it'd be which actually made Virgil less anxious about the whole thing since of course he'd been thinking about everything that could go wrong ever since Thomas had first found out about it.

Roman was always so hopeful and positive, it made Virgil always feel a little bad about being so negative about everything but he couldn't always help it. His entire function was to think of all possible outcomes to prepare for the bad ones, after all.

"We're here!" Roman declared and Virgil looked up and around at his surroundings, noting that the forest was opening up in a small clearing, a stream of crystal clear water running by and the ground was absolutely covered in leaves in all sorts of autumn colors, he could barely see the still green grass below.

"Huh, it's like... pretty here." He said, seeing in the corner of his eye how Roman conjured up a picnic blanket and a basket that presumably contained their breakfast. Roman looked like he was about to say something very sappy but decided not to say it in the last moment.

That was probably good, Virgil became much more flustered than he'd like to. He actively searched for a way to make Roman blush too but the creative trait sadly seemed to be immune so far. (It was incredibly unfair that Roman could have such an effect on him and that Virgil couldn't retaliate.)

Roman rolled the blanket out on the ground and smoothed it out, placing the basket on it and then turning back to Virgil who'd been observing him the whole time.

"I really like it here, I come here to think sometimes. Or just to relax and de-stress. There is something calming about playing with leaves, you can make leaf-crowns and stuff like that, it's fun." Roman said and Virgil looked down at the leaves he was standing by. He crouched down and picked up a particularly red aspen leaf which caught his eye.

"It's pretty." Virgil picked up another leaf, a green one that was half beginning to go yellow. Roman crouched down next to him and grabbed a bright yellow leaf, holding it up to inspect it closely.

"The yellow leaves are often disregarded as a bit plain but I love them. The very yellow ones always cheer me up a bit. Though red is still my favorite color." He began shuffling up leaves in a small pile and Virgil stood back up, holding the leaves up in front of his face and looking as closely at them as he could without straining his eyes. Nature was pretty cool actually.

Though that wouldn't make him go outside more often.

He let go of the leaves and watched how Roman grabbed an armful of leaves from the ground, standing up again and then throwing them into the air. Virgil smiled at Roman who excitedly looked up at the leaves as they rained down around them, thinking that it was unfair that his boyfriend could look so pretty.

Virgil took a step closer to him, reaching a hand out and running it through Roman's hair, brushing away a leaf that had landed on his head, then stepping back again.

Roman bent down and shuffled another small pile of leaves together, taking as much of it into his hands as he could before standing. Then before Virgil really had time to register the way he smirked at him he threw the leaves right in Virgil's face.

"You bastard." Virgil exclaimed, attempting to shield himself with his arms and glaring at Roman who was near falling over with laughter. "What was that for?"

"You should've seen your face, you looked so betrayed." He said in between loud laughter and Virgil kept glaring at him as he too bent down and gathered up leaves in his hands, seeing how Roman's grin dropped as he realized the situation he'd gotten himself in.

"Hey now, let's be reasonable." He said, holding his hands up in a defensive gesture. Virgil only set off after him, having no plan on being 'reasonable' at all. Roman attempted to run for his life but Virgil got a hold of his sash, yanking him back and then stuffing the leaves in his hand down the back of Roman's shirt while Roman was protesting the behaviour loudly.

"You fiend." He said as he tried shaking the leaves out from his shirt, being answered by another handful of leaves being thrown in his face.

"You started this, suit yourself." Virgil stuck his tongue out at him, being met with a pout and then seeing a glint in Roman's eyes coupled with a smile that couldn't mean anything good. He was just beginning to wonder what Roman was planning when he ran straight towards Virgil and tackled him.

Virgil let out a surprised yelp and stumbled backwards, meeting Roman's surprised eyes as they both fell to the ground. Perhaps Roman hadn't counted on him actually falling over, but he found himself in the situation quickly. 

Roman pinned him to the ground with a triumphant laugh, his hands on his chest, pressing Virgil down. Virgil tried getting out of his grip but failed.

Virgil did his best to glare at him, he really did, but Roman looked incredibly handsome and he instead found himself fighting a smile. Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to fight his way out of Roman's grip since he was considerably stronger than Virgil he instead decided to do something else.

He grabbed a hold of Roman's shirt, pulling him down until their noses brushed and Roman had the time to stare Virgil right in the eyes and understand what he was about to do. Virgil neither saw nor heard any complaints from Roman and therefore tilted his head a little and pressed his lips to Roman's.

Roman's grip to Virgil's shirt softened as he returned the kiss, and Virgil allowed himself to momentarily lose himself in the surprisingly likeable sensation of Roman's lips on his before he used this moment of Roman having his guard down to push him away a bit and then flip them around so Virgil was the one on top of Roman who now confusedly looked up at Virgil as if he had forgotten all about their ongoing wrestling match.

"Ha, I win." Virgil said and grinned down at Roman. Realization lit up in his eyes but Roman shook his head.

"You kissed me, I think I am the real winner here." He smiled up at Virgil who rolled his eyes at Roman, tempted to throw some more leaves at him.

"Whatever." Really, Roman didn't need to make a big deal out of this. It kind of was, but still.

"That's the first time we've kissed." Roman continued, smiling wider and Virgil avoided looking right at him.

"Whatever." He said again and glared at him when Roman awwed at his blush. Virgil leaned down and kissed him again just to shut him up. Roman smiled into the kiss, hands tangling in Virgil's hair and he was smiling too. Roman simply had a stupid tendency to make Virgil feel happy.

They parted again and Virgil almost laughed at the expression of wonder on Roman's face.

"Let's eat some breakfast." Roman then suggested, Virgil nodding while willing his blush to go away. He stood up and held a hand out for Roman to take, helping him up and then brushing away some leaves from his clothes too.

"Yeah, let's."

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Written: 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th October 2019
Published: 13th February 2021
Words: 2107

i avoided publishing this because i was worried it sucked but now i proofread it finally and its not actually awful, huh