Sanders Sides Oneshots

In A Heartbeat (Royality)

Written for the CIC on the TSFA (and the Valentine's Challenge)

Theme: Love AU
Love AU Chosen: Middle school/In A Heartbeat

*
Patton's Point Of View

Growing up and seeing others around me start to have crushes and date, I began to notice that my heart beat a different drum compared to everyone else around me.

While the other hormone-crazed guys my age ogled the covers of celebrity magazines and social medias of actresses and female musicians, I found my eyes wandering in a different direction. Men's health magazines, those cheesy romance novels you find for cheap in the book sections of markets where the guys have no shirts and such. Those things were what drew me in and kept my attention, and what made my young teenage heart flutter. I knew, at just thirteen, that I was gay. But I knew I could never tell anyone . . . Not yet.

Walking into my school, Madison Middle, my mind seemed to hyper focus on the little things I wouldn't normally pay attention to. Such as just how loud hundreds of students chatting in the halls and slamming lockers shut really were, or how bland and colourless our hallways and some classrooms were. For the first time in my life . . . it felt like something was missing.

I stopped at my locker and unloaded my bag, grabbing my books out. I went to close it when I caught someone out of the corner of my eye. Maybe he was new, or maybe my hyper focusing was getting too out of control, because I don't think I've ever seen him before. And might I just say . . . he was cute. Very much so, actually.

Our eyes accidentally met, and I swear it felt like my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. I quickly averted my eyes and stared into my locker as he passed by me, pretending to be interested in my history textbook. I was alone with my thoughts for a moment. What was his name . . . ?

"Hey, Roman!"

Though that wasn't my name, the shout drew my attention anyway. I glanced over and saw the person who shouted walking up to the boy, the two of them immediately engaging in conversation.

Roman. That was his name. It sounded so . . . perfect, so fitting for a guy like him. And in a moment of stupidity, I grabbed my pink, heart-shaped sticky notes and wrote down his name. I constantly experienced short term memory, but his name was one I wanted to remember.

Hearing the warning bell, I quickly gathered by books and went into my homeroom that doubled as my first class of the day. I spent most of my classes spaced out, doodling on the sticky note with Roman's name on it. I added little hearts, sloppily coloured in, as well as little stars. Right under his name, I wrote 'Patton x Roman.' It felt . . . right. I had never acted on my feelings, never showed any signs in my interest of guys. But this little slip of paper? It held all the evidence that proved I was gay. You may think why that would be a bad thing, why that sounds like such a crime. But the thing was, around here, it was just as bad as a crime. And this note was all that they would need to prove me guilty.

Four Months Later

I couldn't help it. The decorations, the atmosphere, it all brought a grin to my face and a happy little flutter to my heart. February and Valentine's Day had never made me feel so excited and giggly until fairly recently, when my crush on Roman Price grew to the largest it has ever been. We'd hardly talked, but every time we did I felt like my heart would burst out of my chest and spill all my feelings to him.

A day before Valentine's Day, I let my eyes linger on Roman more than I usually did. It was lunchtime and he was sitting under a tree, doing homework for one of his classes in the cool, February air. He ate an apple with one hand and wrote with the other. I was sitting all alone at one of the old wooden picnic tables, hiding my gaze behind a book.