Summary: They meet Roman's friend and have a chat about powers
Warnings: none? Tell me if I should add any
Chapter 10- Plants Vs Princes
The weather was splendid, if Roman did say so himself despite the winter rapidly closing in, not like Alicante, nor California, would really suffer from the cold. Still, with the fall sun shining hot, and a warm breeze drifting through the air, it was nice.
The start of their walk began quietly. Roman wasn't sure whether or not Virgil was mad at him. Obviously, he had reason to- Roman had teleported them across the globe, and couldn't get them back. Surprisingly, he hadn't spent too long in any part of America, and had very few places he could thing of teleporting. In his new city, there really were few spots he knew that didn't have cameras, or were bustling with people. In the city he grew up in wasn't too far from his current address, with his roommates, but he'd never really ventured far off of their property; his father feared he'd do something dumb. Imagine was everything, after all. Roman considered trying to go to his childhood home, but thought better of it. They'd surely be caught by some camera, or neighbour. It was barely worth the risk, especially when he had other manors of returning home.
A minute of silence passed until Roman had had enough of his thoughts. Though, he had nothing to say to Virgil that he was sure wouldn't upset him further. Was he upset? Or was it anger? Was it worse to say nothing, or add salt to the injury? He had to do something, he decided. The last thing he wanted Virgil to find him was boring. Rude, annoying? Sure, he'd heard that all before. But boring was something Roman King refused to be.
Untrusting of his words, Roman began to hum. He was vaguely aware of what the song was that he hummed, as he'd never not recognise anything from Heathers. 'Fight For Me', though, held a special place in his heart. He found the song in his dreams, or paintings of people he admired, and he found it stuck in his brain for several weeks on end. The tune was one he knew well, and thought not of, until Virgil joined in.
Virgil's humming was nearly silent. It was timid. It was unsure. It was sweet, and Roman was hooked. He lowered the volume of his own humming a little, to hear Virgil better, without discouraging him. To Roman's amusement, Virgil took the chorus' parts, and ended the song.
"You like Heathers?" Roman asked after they'd finished the song, excitement clear in his voice.
"The film's better, but yeah I love both." Virgil said sheepishly.
Virgil looked Roman dead in the eye, almost as a challenge- about to drop metaphorical gauntlet for a duel. "Christian Slater's eyebrows."
Roman had to concede. He looked ahead, seeing their destination looming near. "Fair point. Christian Slater is a snack. But the musical soundtrack is so powerful!"
"Let me guess: you're a sucker for 'Our Love Is God'."
Roman feigned offence. It was, of course, true, but he didn't like how Virgil had pegged him so easily. "It's romantic!"
"If you ignore the two murders in the middle."
Roman spun dramatically in a circle. "Exactly!"
"Dude, that's kind of an important fact to just glaze over."
"Possibly." Roman agreed, he supposed murder was a pretty big thing to just gloss over. "Anyway, I bet your favourite song is 'Freeze Your Brain'. You give off some real JD vibes."
Virgil paused, staring right at him. "I look like a psychopathic serial killer?"
Roman didn't catch the sarcasm. He backtracked, "No, no, no! Well-" He looked Virgil up and down, "Yeah, no, not really. You just have a dark edginess about you-"
"Calm down Princey, I'm messing with you. I do like 'Freeze Your Brain', and you're not the first one to think I give off psycho vibes. I played JD in my highschool's production."
"You're a theatre kid?" Roman practically yelled. He <i>knew it.<i/> Well, he hadn't actually thought about it before, but now that he knew it made so much sense. "I knew you could sing!"
Virgil smiled shyly in response.
"Sing something with me- Disney, you must know Disney."
"Yes, I know Disney. No, I'm not singing." He started walking again, getting several feet in front of Roman before he thought to catch up. For someone so short, he surely walked quickly.
"Please," Roman begged, "From your favourite Disney film. What is it?"
"Black cauldron. No songs, it's perfect."
"Alright, alright." He pointed forward. "Anyway, our destination is right up that hill. The easiest pathway starts from the edge of town, unless you want to hike."
"Can't you just teleport us? Hiking sucks."
"But then we'd miss all the scenery. Besides, I want to see if my friend Bea is around." Plus, I need to save my energy, he thought.
Bea was, just as Roman had hoped, around. She sat at her flower stall, looking bored, with a pink flower crown she'd probably spent too much time making on top of her head. She hadn't changed too much since Roman last saw her, despite her hair having grown from a pixie cut to well past her shoulders. Nowadays, his visits to Spain were scarce.
She didn't spot Roman straight away, as she was absorbed in her phone, her face obscured by her hair. Roman took this opportunity to sneak up on her from behind. He snatched her phone out of her hand.
"Hey!" She protested, spinning round to face Roman. The moment she saw him, her angry expression dropped to one of surprise, and then joy. She pounced on Roman, engulfing him in a hug with such power that it almost knocked him to the ground. Despite being thin, she was almost Roman's height, and could really get some force into her hugs.
She pulled out of the hug, wearing an expression of anger again. "Where have you been? You haven't visited in months. No calls, no texts, and you haven't posted in Instagram in like two weeks which I guessed meant you were dead."
Roman passed her her phone. "My sincerest apologies, although you could've texted me," Bea did not like this answer. "I've been busy with work, and you know, moving house."
"Since a month ago. I'm living in an apartment with two lovely roommates, and J-Delightful over there." He gestured towards where Virgil was standing a foot or two away. Virgil gave a small, awkward wave in response.
Bea rushed over to Virgil. "Ohmygosh you're so pretty! Sorry I didn't see you, and sorry Roman's so terrible at introductions. I'm Bea."
"Virgil." He smiled politely.
"Wait a sec, I have something perfect for you-" Bea swiftly moved behind her stall and retrieved two more flower crowns: one red and yellow, braided with flowers that Roma recognised to be red carnations, as well as some other smaller blooms, and a crown which consisted mainly of deep purple flowers with kite shaped petals, and some more, pinker flowers in between. As she passed him, she placed the red flower crown hastily on Roman's head, completely messing his hair up in the process. In a less aggressive manner, she kindly offered Virgil the other crown.
"Don't worry. I make loads. My friend has been cloning some of my plants for me so I have way more than I need."
"Okay, well, thank you." Virgil said, placing the flower grown lightly on his head. Roman never expected to see Virgil wearing something to colourful. Roman tried his best not to stare, failing horribly. He opened his phone camera to hide his face, and to fix his hair which Bea had rudely ruffled.
"Aw, you look so cute! Purple suits you." Bea said, impressively energetically. Roman knew from several late night adventures in their youth, that Bea had overwhelming stores of energy that never seemed to run dry. Coming from Roman this statement truly held some weight.
"You have a boyfriend." Roman reminded her, a little more defensively than usual.
Bea laughed, "Yeah, and you don't, what's your point?" She looked between Roman and Virgil excitedly. "Unless you two are...?"
"No!" Both boys said, a little too quickly. They stared at one another quickly, surprised. Virgil broke eye contact first, looking down at his feet. Roman noticed a blush creeping onto his cheeks, matching his flower crown.
Roman switched his camera round and discreetly took a picture of the blushing emo, for teasing purposes of course.
"Wow okay, didn't mean to offend anyone." Bea reassured, gently waving a white flower in peace.
"You could never." Roman denied just as Virgil whispered, "You didn't."
"Well, anyway," Bea changed the subject, "I'm running out of space to store all these plants so you're both taking two each home."
Roman had forgotten how bossy Bea could be, even when doing something nice.
Roman slid his sunglasses down onto his nose and peered at Bea over the top."You want us to carry four plants back?"
"I'm sure you'll manage, Maharajah"
Virgil wasn't sure he'd heard right. "Maharajah?"
"Oh, it's a really funny story. So I was hosting this Indian exchange student ages ago because my dad knows like three words in Hindi and thought he could speak to them, which was a disaster. Anyway, literally the second he saw Roman he just says 'Maharaja' so me and Roman are just really confused, obviously, but we don't think much of it. Maybe he has a friend that looks like Roman-"
"He'd be lucky." Roman remarked.
Bea ignored him. "-called Maharajah but then him and his friend keep snickering about if and saying it whenever Roman was being, well, Roman,"
Virgil piped in this time, "So, extra?"
Bea pointed at him. "Exactly! We asked him what it meant and he, in a thick Indian accent, was just like 'In English, I think you'd describe him as an extra bitch' which of course I would but it was hilarious and Roman was moping for the rest of the day."
"I was not moping! I don't mope." Roman protested.
"Hush, Roman. The grown ups are speaking. Go get some plants."
"I'm older than both of you?"
Bea stared at Roman, unyielding, until he huffed and went behind the stall to look at all the plants.
"But yeah so we googled Maharajah and they used that name for their kings-"
"Which I am." Roman said, holding two small plants up to his eye level, as if they were evidence in a murder investigation.
"-or emperors or whatever but now they just use it for extra bitches like Roman."
"That's... Kind of perfect." Virgil said. "At the apartment, we just call him pool noodle, not to be confused with our snake who we call cute noodle."
Roman emerged from the stall with a pot of red flowers, which were just beginning to bloom. "I thought I was the cute noodle."
Virgil smiled apologetically, "Sorry, that's Raman."
Virgil confirmed, "The cute noodle."
"Ahhhh, makes sense. But why do you guys have a snake? Like, they're cool but a kind of random pet."
"Virgil and his much kinder-" He shot a smug look at Virgil, "brother, Patton, saved it from some birds. It's only staying with us until the end of the week."
"You're just jealous it gets more attention than you, Princey."
Roman poked one of the flower's buds. "I most certainly am not."
"Hey, be gentle with that. It's just starting to bloom, loser. It's a poinsettia, and I knew you'd choose that one." She nudged Roman playfully. "What about you Virgil, which two do you want?"
Virgil looked over the options. The stall was full of different varieties of plants. What first caught Virgil's eye were a load of hanging plants, dropping down from the top of the stall. They looked cool, but Virgil had nowhere to keep them. The table had a huge variety of plants, none of which Virgil could name, though he liked their pretty colours and shapes.
"What's the easiest to keep alive? I suck at gardening."
"I usually have some succulents or cacti which are pretty much impossible to kill but they need repotting so... Okay, this one." She handed Virgil a plastic pot with a few small, vibrant purple flowers. "They're African violets, very easy to care for, but they don't like direct sunlight. What about the other plant?"
"Uh, I don't know, maybe something for my brother? I don't know."
"Aw, that's so sweet, what does he like?"
What would Patton like? A flower? A succulent? One of the leafy ones? "Uh... He likes colourful stuff?"
"Oh, me too. What about a polka dot plant?" She picked up a small bush plant with pink leaves spilling out of the side. "It's pretty easy to keep alive- indirect sunlight, water every few days and it should thrive."
Virgil moved his violets under one arm and took the polka dot plant from Bea, making sure to get a good grip on both. He'd be mortified if he dropped either fragile plant. "Thank you, he'll love it." He said, pouring as much gratitude as he could into the sentence. Roman's friend, who he'd known for a solid five minutes was giving him two free plants which seemed to be what she earned a living from, and seemed to genuinely care about his brother. Plus, she annoyed Roman- that was a bonus. If Virgil had any money he would've given it to Bea, but it was... Right, in another continent. That still hadn't sunk in.
Bea smiled and looked back to Roman. "What about you?"
"Me? What about me? Are we talking about me?" Roman asked. He'd tuned out of the conversation a few minutes ago to continue a daydream. He noticed Virgil trying to cover his mouth to stop laughing with a plant still in his hand, subsequently getting leaves in his mouth. Karma.
Bea merely shook her head, "No, dude, pick another plant."
He glanced at Virgil, who was struggling to spit out a leaf from the plant he'd selected for Patton. Roman considered for a moment, "I should probably get one for Logan."
"Your other roommate?" Bea asked. Roman nodded. "What does he like?"
"Uh..." Roman realised how little he knew about Logan. He could only recall one instance in which he'd spoken to Logan alone, and that was only a short conversation about coffee. He looked to Virgil for guidance, who dismissed him with a shrug. "He likes science and... Robots?"
Bea shook her head very slightly. "I don't happen to have any robot flowers today but this is pretty cool." She showed Virgil and Roman a pot full of stones. Roman waited a moment, wondering whether a bright pink plant would shoot through the rocks and sing the alphabet (or something more scientifically possible) but nothing happened.
"Where's the plant?" He asked.
Bea held the plant closer to them. "Here." She insisted.
Roman and Virgil shared a confused look.
"They're not rocks," Bea explained. "They're succulents. Kinda dull to look at but like, they're cool."
"No way." Virgil whispered, feeling the rock-plant. Roman followed suit, expecting a rough texture. It surprised him to feel that strange rubbery, plastic-like texture succulents all had.
"I don't remember it's actual name but me and Bella call it Rocky, obviously."
"I'm sure Logan will know its name, species, origin and at least two random facts about it." Roman said, no intentions of malice behind his words. He accepted the pot from Bea, tucking it under his spare arm.
Virgil let slip a laugh before he could compose himself back to that neutral, nearly annoyed looking expression he wore most of the time. Why he suppressed his smiles and laughter was a mystery to Roman- he looked so carefree when he laughed. It would have to be Roman's new quest: to cheer up the emo.
Bea squinted up at the sky. "The sun's about to set and I should probably get these plant children inside but it was really nice to meet you, Virgil."
Roman was very conscious of the size of Bea's stall, and the little amount of daylight they had left. He offered, "Any help getting the flowers back to yours?"
"Nah, I'm good." Bea lifted the cloth that covered the stall, revealing wheels on the table legs. Roman laughed, what a Bea thing to do.
She kicked at one of the wheels, spinning it to face he same direction of the others. Bea grabbed one end of the stall and pulled it slightly. "Roman, you better text me later, and if either of you or your roommates have any questions about your plants or just want a chat, message me. Visit soon!" She pulled the cart away slowly.
Virgil and Roman yelled their goodbyes after her, then set off down the path up the hill.
As per Virgil's request, they sat under a tree, not too close to the water. Of course Virgil wanted to be in the shade, here was probably melting in that black jacket.
The scene in front of them was beautiful. The number of selfies Roman had taken in this spot was infinitesimal (meaning extremely large, not tiny, as Logan had mistaken a few days ago). They had a perfect view of the sea, and setting sun. And Virgil? He was a view of his own. Of course, he lacked any sense of style at all, clad in black from head to toe, although Roman quite admired that. The juxtaposition of the colourful sunset behind Virgil, with Virgil's black, silhouette like stature looked like an artwork Roman would have painted. Perhaps he would a little later.
"What?" Virgil asked. He placed his plant pots in the space between where they were sitting.
"Why are you staring, Prince Edward?" Virgil crossed his arms over his chest.
"Yeah." Virgil said slowly, "From Enchanted."
Roman gasped, offended. "Why of course I knew he was from Enchanted. I was just surprised that you of all people would compliment me."
"Compliment? He's stupid and sings too much." Virgil paused a second. "What do you mean 'me of all people?'"
"He's brave and does anything in the name of love! And he sings a perfectly reasonable amount. Plus, he's handsome. I find him rather relatable." Virgil waited for him to answer his question. "I said 'you of all people' because I don't think I've ever heard you compliment anyone."
Virgil hugged his arms to his chest. "Or maybe you've never done anything that I should compliment."
"What do you mean? I look like this-" he gestured around wildly. "-every day."
[this chapter is so long I'll post the rest in a sec]
