The Melting Pot Complex

Chapter Twenty-Eight ~ Roman

{Possible trigger warnings: some swearing, running into the street, character putting themselves in danger

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

After dinner, Virgil got up and announced that he was going for a walk. It would still be light out for an hour or more, so Patton wasn't worried about it, but Roman jumped to his feet.

"You are not coming with, Princey."

"Virgil!" Roman groaned, following him down the hall. "C'mon, just let me? I won't even talk if you don't want me to-"

"No." Virgil said flatly, walking into his room. Roman stayed in the doorway, fiddling with the little beaded bracelet he was wearing.

"Please? I just want to-"

Virgil whirled. "Roman! I get it."

Roman stopped short, chewing his lip.

"You want to apologize. I know, you do it three times a day. I get that you know you f*cked up, but oh my god you're driving me insane." Virgil sighed heavily and dragged his good hand across his face. "If I let you come with me, will you leave me alone occasionally?"

Roman nodded quickly.

"Fine. Fine! I'm leaving in five minutes, with or without you."

Roman practically sprinted across the apartment to his room. He grabbed a pair of comfortable shoes to wear, along with a plain black jacket. He would usually wear his Princey jacket but he figured it would irritate Virgil more.

They met up in the living room again, entering at almost the same time. Roman grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets, getting an eye-roll in response. Virgil spun his keys on his fingertip once, then pocketed them and headed for the door.

It was almost physically painful for Roman to keep quiet as they left the apartment. He loved talking, getting to know people. But Virgil clearly wanted quiet, so Roman forced himself to keep his mouth shut.

"You're dramatic as hell, you know that?"

Roman looked over at Virgil quickly. His roommate was staring at the ground in front of them as they walked.

"I... I'm aware."

Virgil snorted. "You sound like Logan."

Roman bit his tongue.

"Look, Roman. You piss me off, a lot. But I can tell you're really upset about what happened. I watched your apology video a dozen times, I read comment after comment. I saw you defending me to your own fans, watched you cry as you talked about the mistake you'd made." Virgil sighed and looked up at the evening sky. "I'm not... forgiving you. That sh*t hurt."

"And I understand that." Roman said quickly, fiddling with the zipper on his jacket. "I'm sorry."

"But that-" Virgil turned to point at him. "Needs to stop. I'm so godd*mn tired of listening to you apologize. I get it, you're sorry, I'm accepting your apology. I'm not forgiving you, but I'm accepting the apology."

Roman nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Okay. Thank you."

Virgil grunted and kept walking, his head up now as he looked around. Roman followed him, keeping quiet again.

He nearly ran into his roommate when Virgil stopped suddenly.

"Roman- sh*t sh*t sh*t- look!"

Before Roman could figure out what Virgil was pointing to, the injured man took off at a sprint. With no other choice, Roman raced after him.

He pulled up short when Virgil leapt into the street, letting out a yell of surprise. For a moment he thought his roommate had gone crazy.

Then he saw the dog.

The poor thing was in the middle of an intersection, dancing back and forth uncertainly. Each time a car horn blared the dog skittered away from it, but it seemed to know it wanted to cross the street.

Virgil stopped a few feet from the dog and crouched, reaching a hand out. Seeing the potential for disaster, Roman ran into the street after him.

He planted his feet in the middle of the intersection, still a good way away from the dog so he didn't scare it, and ripped off his jacket to wave it around in the air. Making his motions as big as possible, Roman prayed that he could get enough attention from drivers in the intersection that they'd stop.

It seemed to work, though most of the drivers were unhappy about it. Roman kept swinging his jacket around, praying Virgil was getting the dog.

"Roman, get over here!"

He spun around to see Virgil standing on the sidewalk. His good hand was firmly looped through the animal's collar, making Roman breathe a sigh of relief. He quickly ran out of the intersection, heart pounding.

"Is it okay?"

"She's fine. Get out your phone." Virgil crouched in front of the dog, fiddling with her tag. "Ready?"

He read off a phone number and Roman punched it in with adrenaline-shaky fingers. 

The phone rang twice, then a woman's voice answered. "Hello this is Allie."

"Hello, Allie... are you looking for a dog?" Roman asked, turning to watch the cars go by as he talked. 

"Oh thank god- did you find her? Is she okay?"

"She seems fine. Scared, but physically fine." Roman glanced at the dog. Virgil was still crouched in front of her, his thumb hooked in her collar while he used the rest of his hand to gently scratch beneath her ear.

"Where are you? My husband and I have been looking for her for an hour." Allie sounded a bit out of breath. Before Roman could answer, he heard her faintly yell for someone named Riley.

He realized that he hadn't just heard it through the phone.

"We must be close, I heard you shout. We're on the corner of Oakland and 6th."

For a moment there was silence, then Allie spoke again. "Yep, we're just a block off. We'll be there in a minute if you don't mind waiting for us."

"Of course." Roman smiled, even though she couldn't see. "We'll see you soon."

He hung up and glanced at Virgil, who was still petting the dog. "Do you realize what you just did?"

"Shut up I'm trying to block it out." Virgil hissed, squeezing his eyes shut. The dog nosed his face gently and he chuckled a little.

Roman heard feet pounding on the pavement and turned to see an Indian woman with a leash running towards them, followed closely by a blond guy.

"Thank you so much! We were so scared she was going to get hit."

The dog noticed her and got to her feet, wagging her little stump-tail excitedly.

"She almost did." Virgil stood up slowly, holding the dog's collar to keep her still so Allie could reattach the leash. "I saw her in the middle of the intersection."

"Oh my god and you managed to get her to come to you?"

Roman shook his head. "No, he ran into the street like an idiot and got her."

Allie gasped and looked at Virgil, who shrugged and looked down. "I had a Doberman like her when I was a kid who got loose. I didn't want to see it happen to someone else."

{lowkey this is me venting because we saw a Doberman loose in the street the other day (as of when I wrote this) and we were trying to get her to come to us, then someone honked and spooked her and she took off. I hope her owners found her}