The Melting Pot Complex

Chapter Twelve ~ Roman

{Possible trigger warnings: forgetting to eat, slight manipulation to get someone to eat, k word is used once again

If I miss something, I apologize and please let me know}

Roman was a bit surprised by the whole thing with the mug. It was custom, as Virgil had assumed, but he rarely used it. In fact, it had been sitting on his desk for months, holding several of his smaller makeup brushes. When he unpacked it he'd realized how shadow-covered it was, and that was the only reason he'd washed it. 

When he found the pages detailing how it was being fixed he'd tucked them under the corner of one of the storage bins he had on the desk so that he would know where they were if he needed to check them.

Virgil stayed locked in his room until dinner, so Roman didn't get a chance to talk to him about it for a while. When Patton cheerfully yelled that the garlic bread was out of the oven and the pasta was ready, he intercepted his roommate in the hallway.

"Look I'm sorry about the mug or whatever-" Virgil started immediately, slouching and staring at his feet. Roman cleared his throat to cut him off.

"I wanted to say thank you for going through so much trouble to fix it for me."

"Oh. Uh- well it was Logan's idea." Virgil muttered, scuffing his toe on the floorboards.

"Thank you regardless." Roman shrugged. "I feel like we've maybe gotten off to a bit of a rocky start."

The other man snorted. "Ya think, Princey?"

"Oh come on, give me a chance to finish." Roman put his hands on his hips. "If you want to, I suppose I'd be willing to figure out a little bit what we're okay with around each other."

"Did Patton put you up to this?" Virgil asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.

"No! I'm being honest." Roman let out a huff of annoyance. "I just want this apartment to work out."

Virgil blinked at him for a moment, then nodded. "I can get that..."

"Is that a yes?"

"It's a maybe, Princey." Virgil brushed past him. "C'mon, I'm starving and that garlic bread smells amazing."

Roman's stomach rumbled loudly in response and Virgil snickered, disappearing into the kitchen.

"That's a start, I suppose." Roman said quietly to himself, pushing his hands into his pockets as he followed.

Patton beamed at him. "There you are! I was gonna come looking for you, usually you're the first in here when I call."

"Had to ask Virgil a question, no worries Pat."

Patton watched him for a moment, but Virgil interrupted by dragging one of the island chairs out loudly. "Food smells great, Pat, I haven't eaten today-"

"Virgil, that's not good for you!" The blond man frowned. "You need to eat!"

Virgil shrugged, clearly unbothered. "I forgot."

Roman raised his eyebrows at his roommate, but didn't say anything. Patton began to dish out food, handing Virgil the first plate, and he muffled a laugh.

"I'm fine, Patton." Virgil assured him.

Patton gave him an uncharacteristically stern look. "Eat it."

Virgil rolled his eyes, but Roman could see a tiny smile flickering on his face.

"Eat it or I'll cry." Patton planted both hands on the counter, staring Virgil down as he leaned forward.

"Oh don't do that to me." Virgil groaned. "I'm going to eat it, I wouldn't be sitting here if I wasn't."

Patton just kept watching him until the gamer picked up his fork and took a bite of the pasta.

"That was uncharacteristically manipulative, Patton." Logan commented calmly as he served himself a plate of food.

Patton shrugged and glanced at Virgil.

"We made a deal in high school that he could do whatever it took to make me take care of myself. I found out about his ability to cry on demand very quickly after that." The other man shrugged, sticking another forkful of food in his mouth.

Patton beamed. "I've always been a pretty good actor."

"That is incredible Patton, I can't even do that! Have you ever been on stage?" Roman leaned his elbows on the counter, grinning at him. 

"Oh gosh no! I'm plenty friendly but having that many people staring at me would be scary!" Patton dished up another plate and offered it to Roman. "I have a horrible memory anyway, I don't think I could ever keep the lines straight."

"At that point it would simply be a matter of finding characters that do not require memorization." Logan spoke up, pausing with his fork in the air. "There are plenty of shows where certain characters only have a few lines, have none at all, or allow for improvisation."

Roman nodded quickly. "Very right! I was in a play a few months ago where one of our characters was only there to make the occasional strange sound. Nearly killed us all one night when she made this absolutely terrifying screech-gasp during one of the more serious scenes. The lead had to stop in the middle of a monologue to keep from laughing."

Patton giggled. "I wish I'd seen that, it sounds really funny."

"It was."

They all looked at Virgil.

"You saw the show?" Roman asked after a moment, interested. "Wouldn't have picked you for a theatre-goer."

"I'm not." Virgil said flatly.

"But you saw my show." Roman smirked.

"My sibling dragged me, don't get a bigger head than you've already got Princey."

Virgil got up and Patton frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Back to my room to edit. I'll take the plate, chill out."

The others looked at each other as Virgil collected his food and disappeared down the hall again.

"I'm starting to think he simply doesn't like interaction." Logan said after they heard the door to Virgil's room shut.

"Well that's true." Patton sighed. "He's been getting a little better though. I think something's bothering him, but I don't know what it is and I don't think he'll tell me."

"If he truly feels it is important, he will tell us." Logan shrugged and went back to his food. "This is very good, Patton."

The vlogger brightened immediately. "Thanks!"

Roman stole Virgil's vacated chair and dug into the pasta. "Mmm. Thank you, Patty-Cake."

Patton giggled. "Patty-Cake?"

"Oh- I've always been a nickname giver. It doesn't bother you, does it?"

"No of course not!" Patton beamed at him. "Give all the nicknames you want, I don't mind."

Roman chuckled. "Cool."

{improv moments onstage are the hardest to get over sometimes. When I was in high school our director would let us do little 'improv' things during our last show to make it memorable. As long as we got it okayed by her beforehand we could do anything we wanted. Sophomore year we did Shrek the Musical and Sunday night we got our actor who played the priest in the wedding scene memorize the 'mawwiage' monologue from Princess Bride}