Summary: Roman is a passionate hard-worker at a hotel, meaning he works long hours but is paid well. This means his husband, Virgil, can stay at home with their kids. While that does work for their family it means Virgil is lonely sometimes... and he gets anxious when he's lonely.
This was going to be an Analogical chapter but I realised I hadn't written Prinxiety in a while and workaholic Roman kind of works because Roman is a passionate person so I can imagine he can get really involved in a job.
Words: 1135
Virgil was lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, only silence surrounding him which he hated. He turned to the side, wanting to see his husband lying next to him and whispering sweet nothings, sharing high school memories the pair had together. But instead he was alone, like usual, and he hated it. He yet again had to take their kids to bed all by himself, wrap up some leftovers and put it in the fridge... He just wanted to be hugged by his lover.
He went downstairs when he realised he couldn't sleep and just waited on the sofa with his hoodie wrapped around him. There were owls hooting outside and a little bit of rain hitting the windows - Virgil loved watching the rain. He actually saw rain more than the person he was married to.
The door opened slowly and Virgil saw the silhouette of his husband walk through the door. "Hey Emo..." Roman mumbled, yawning and getting the spaghetti bolognese out of the fridge, then sitting opposite Virgil. No hugs, no kissing, no anything - just a 'hey'.
But he soon realised Virgil's angry glare and sat up with his mouth full of pasta. He just awkwardly finished his mouthful and tried to think of some conversation. But Virgil knew he didn't know anything about what going on in his own house. He was too involved with his stupid business or whatever.
"How was Joey's performance?" He finally remembered what one of his children was doing. Joey was their oldest son and a keen musician - much like his father was a keen performer before this whole hotel job took off. Not that Roman seemed to care. He'd never take time off to do anything with his kids. That's why Virgil didn't answer - looking away from him. "What's the matter Hot Topic?"
That's when Virgil glared. He can't call him that when Virgil wanted to be in a mood with him - it was unfair. "What's the matter?" He scoffed, rolling his eyes and walking to the kitchen to get some water.
"What do you think is the matter? What time did you go to work this morning?"
Roman sighed, immediately realising Virgil's mood. "6am... I did give you a kiss before I went though." Virgil didn't stop his glaring, just leant against the wall and sipped his drink. Roman had avoided his home-cooked meal, the first time he was actually focused fully on Virgil in a while. "Do you want to talk about something?"
"I'll assume you don't have time... Surely you have a work call by now?" Virgil said nonchalantly, spinning the water in his glass with his finger. Roman just sighed and walked up to his husband, holding his hand and trying to give him a fond look if Virgil didn't avoid each look. Then he quickly turned his head. "Let go of me." He said sinisterly, and Roman did as told.
But Roman never gave up anything without a fight even though he was now stood back. "Can you talk to me about what you're feeling instead of this... Silence?" Virgil shook his head. "Please JD, I'm happy to talk about this if I did something wrong."
"Oh you did nothing wrong Sir Sing-A-Lot." Virgil snapped with his arms crossed, and for a moment Roman actually looked happy thinking he did nothing wrong. He tried to reach for Virgil again, but again Virgil refused. The confused expression then returned to Roman's face. He really was clueless. But surely Roman must know what he did wrong - they were married and had known each other since they were 16. Roman should be able to read his mind by now. He couldn't help but groan and yell as all the frustration was let out. "I... God, you're so stupid! Why don't you understand why I'm mad?"
The tune of Roman's expression seemed to immediately change at that - to one of hurt and anger. "Because you aren't communicating Virgil! I've just been at work for sixteen hours I don't have time to deal with your shi..." Roman managed to stop himself when he saw Virgil tearing up and sniffling, and he immediately regretted raising his voice. "Sorry. I just need to see where you're standing on whatever issue this is here. You know I love you and always will."
"Can you do the bedtime routine with me tomorrow?"
Virgil's hopeful chirp unfortunately had to be squashed as Roman had a meeting tomorrow he needed to attend. "I can't. There's a meeting with an investor and the extra income would really help..."
And Virgil was glaring again. That answer was not satisfactory, and he was back to the beginning with all this. "I suppose I'll have to see what I can do." And just as Virgil began looking a little hopeful Roman's phone rang. He immediately picked it up and answered it, disregarding his previous conversation with his husband and talking about the meeting tomorrow and how to get the best investment with top-notch conversation skills.
Virgil scoffed and rolled his eyes, getting ready to go up to bed again and lock the door before he saw his youngest daughter - 3 year old Athena. As Virgil was seemingly the only father in the household he immediately walked over to his little girl. "Hey sweetie, it's late." He whispered, kissing the blond girl's forehead and glaring at his husband (who was facing away) for a second. Athena seemed to spot this body language and immediately piped up.
"Dad!" She shouted towards the man on the phone, who immediately turned his head even though he was midway through a phone call. Magically this seemed to get Roman to remember his previous conversation and he turned back to his phone again.
"Actually now I think about it... My kids have really missed me because of all the hours, can I have the day off?"
Virgil couldn't hide his smile as he watched Roman get permission to take the day off work, and then he turned back to his daughter and husband and smiled at them both. "Shall we have a fun day out tomorrow girlie?" Roman smiled and picked Athena up. She immediately smiled wide seeing her father pay attention to her.
So Roman took Athena to bed and read her another bedtime story, then realised the faint saxophone sound coming from Joey's room and told him to get to bed too. For once Virgil could step back from the constant routine of managing their two kids and watch Roman take over. And that night he could cuddle his husband and whisper sweet nothings and high school memories to him until the early hours of the morning, and wake up in his arms. Virgil missed his husband's nice soft arms.