summary: roman is hanging around the mall with his best friend when he runs into his ex. the sweet boy he remembered is replaced with someone roman doesn't even recognize.
word count: 905
so this is based on a vid by @//varsenex on tik tok; the caption was "pov you run into your ex & have flashbacks to when you were both happiest together" varsana was just so godly in their video, i knew i had to do it :,)
tw/cw// sad roman, sad/unsympathetic janus, kinda crying, just overall sadness :D
~~~~
Roman rolled his eyes as Virgil snorted sarcastically at something the former had said. "I'm serious! You don't even-" "Uh-huh, keep talking, Princey, that'll convince me." Roman shook his head playfully and idly drank his soda.
He and Virgil met when Roman began going to a new school about two years ago. They were practically best friends by now, telling each other everything. They were currently at the mall, just looking around and buying the things they liked.
Roman looked around at the other mall guests and froze when he spotted one in particular, not too far away. Virgil gave him a strange yet concerned look. "You good, Ro?" Roman gulped. "It's my ex." Virgil followed his gaze and spotted a boy a few feet away, wearing a yellow floral button-up shirt (with the first three buttons undone) with light blue jeans and a silver chain hanging from his belt loop.
Virgil's eyes widened. "Wait, Janus? That's Janus?" He whispered incredulously to Roman, who nodded his head. "You said he was a dorky kid who dressed like me." Roman frowned. "I- He was. I guess he just grew out of it? I don't know." Virgil stared at Janus in amazement, then back to Roman. "Okay, I'm usually on your side, bud, you know that. But based on what you've told me about him, and the fact that I now have proof that he's real and not someone you made up for sympathy," Roman rolled his eyes at that. "I can confidently say that you screwed up big time."
The preppy boy looked back at Janus with a wince. "You don't think I know that already? I didn't mean for it to go the way it did. I just wanted to make the move easier on him; I thought if we didn't strain our relationship, that we'd be better off." Virgil sighed. "You need to talk to him. And before you say-" "Absolutely not." Roman interjected before Virgil kept going. "I just want to let you know that he probably hated the break up too. He might need closure as much as you do."
Roman frowned and thought for a moment before nodding. "Okay, but can you go with me? I can't do this alone." Virgil nodded and followed the boy to Janus and his friend group, whose conversation trailed off once they noticed someone approaching them.
Janus raised an eyebrow at the two. "What?" Roman nervously gulped. "Um, I just wanted to come over and talk to you, if that's alright?" Janus looked Roman up and down judgingly while taking a sip from his drink.
Roman glanced at the red see-through cup, feeling nostalgic as he watched Janus take a sip.
~~~~
Janus took a sip from his trademark red see-through cup as Roman smiled at him. "So, I thought today we could go to Pacific Playland. I don't know why, nothing special today, I don't think." Roman joked, causing Janus to giggle. "You know, I don't know what today is either." Janus played along.
Roman shrugged, still not able to contain his smile. "It's probably someone's anniversary, no clue whose."
~~~~
"Are you going to stare at me all day, or are you going to say something?" Janus asked, clearly not caring about whatever Roman had to say. Roman's throat dried up, but he pushed through. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry things ended the way they did. I didn't mean to hurt you-" Janus snorted, cutting Roman off his rant.
"You didn't mean to hurt me; of course, you didn't. All I'm hearing is: 'I'm sorry you reacted badly to something I did. It wasn't my fault, but I'll apologize anyway.'" Janus chuckled with his friends.
~~~~
Janus laughed at something Roman had said. Roman honestly didn't think it was that funny, just some offhand comment, but seeing Janus's reaction caused a wide grin to spread across Roman's face. 'I'll never get tired of that laugh.' Roman thought to himself.
~~~~
Janus shook his head with a smirk. "You're too late, Roman. You can try to fix your mistake all you want, but I'm done with you." Janus uncapped the lid of his cup and dumped the red slushie that was in the container.
~~~~
Roman never liked slushies, to begin with; now, he had even more of a reason to hate them as four jocks slushied him, each with two slushies in hand. Roman stood there helplessly, trying to ignore the burning sensation in his eyes.
"Roman, what happened?" Roman recognized Janus's voice as he led him to the nearest restroom. After explaining what happened while Janus helped clean off Roman's face, Janus looked at his boyfriend sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Ro. But, on the bright side, they used red slushies, my favorite." He giggled lightly, causing Roman to smile as well.
"I'll have to remember that next time I buy you a slushie."
~~~~
Virgil rushed Roman to the nearest restroom and wiped the slushie from his face as fast as possible. Tears pooled in Roman's eyes, partially from the slushie and partially from Janus's cold behavior.
Janus watched the two run off, a smirk on his face, but it was forced. His heart clenched as the two were out of his view. He loved Roman, but he'd hurt Janus.
Janus had thought a lot about their relationship over the past two years and had talked with Patton, the only other person he and Roman had been friends with at the time. Patton pointed out that Roman was heavily infatuated with Janus, that even when he was gone, he'd do nothing but gush about the snake-loving boy.
Whatever the reason for their break up, Janus didn't leave unscathed, gaining major trust issues and a very closed-off personality. People can't hurt you if you don't let them think they could hurt you in the first place.
'Never again.' Janus thought painfully.
~~~~
i managed to read an entire book in two days (i'm a slow reader and have a short attention span, so it usually takes months to finish a book that size. on more than one occasion, it's taken me literal years to finish books), and i'm proud of myself (it was red, white, and royal blue btw, very amazing, i highly recommend skhdfkjdk hope you all enjoyed, love you all, stay safe, buh bye!!
5/25/21
YOU ARE READING
Sanders Sides One-Shots
Fanfiction~ every ship except remrom, thomas x sides, and no x reader :) (a lot of poly ships aren't in here but that's just bc there's so many variations that it'd be hard to get all of them djfhksk) ~ NO smut here, just angst and fluff :)) ~ posting on satu...
