Prompt 5: christmas tree + prompt 9: candles

Warnings: unspecified nightmare, mentions homophobic parents, idk

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Virgil jerked awake, falling onto the floor and fighting his way out of his blanket in a panic.

He stared around the room with no idea what it was he was looking for, what it was that had scared him, and it dawned on him, sitting in the dark on the living room floor, that he had been dreaming.

He had already forgotten what the dream was about, although the panic he had felt was slow to entirely subside and he sat completely still, looking out over the room for a minute, calming himself and realizing that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of.

The apartment was quiet, he was the only one at home, the only sound that could be heard was the distant noise of a car driving by outside.

Virgil took a deep breath, reaching for the blanket that was still tangled around his legs and pooling around him on the floor. He got up, sitting back down onto the couch which he must have fallen off of when waking up.

He pulled his feet up from the floor to keep them out of reach for any potential demons or serial killers that might somehow have squeezed into the five inches space under the couch, rubbing his shoulder that he had landed on.

He hadn't meant to and shouldn't have fallen asleep on the couch, falling off of it from a nightmare or not, it wasn't good for his back.

From how dark it was outside and having a general idea when it was he had fallen asleep he knew it was some time past midnight and he should probably get up and go to bed.

But it just didn't feel tempting to go to bed, not when his fiance wasn't home, and he wasn't feeling particularly tired, although that might just be adrenaline from the nightmare.

He curled up on the couch, fumbling through his pockets to find his phone, deciding that he could go to bed in a while. He checked the time once he managed to dig his phone out of his pant pocket, seeing that it was only one in the morning.

That wasn't too bad and he could definitely stay up for another while since he had a few days off work as it was christmas in a day. He sighed, looking over at the softly glowing Christmas lights in their tree, thinking back to when he and his fiance had decorated it a week ago.

He really wished Roman wasn't spending Christmas eve and Christmas day with his family, which made him feel just slightly selfish despite knowing that Roman would much rather be celebrating with him and not his parents.

For the past two years Roman had lied and claimed to be working during Christmas to avoid travelling to his parents house for the holidays. They didn't exactly know about Roman's and Virgil's relationship, so Virgil couldn't come with him and also spend Christmas with Roman's parents.

It was a sort of complicated situation as Roman's parents were generally loving and they had a good relationship, but Roman knew his parents wouldn't be happy once they found out that he was queer, and Virgil could hardly fault Roman for putting off losing a meningful relationship with his parents.

He fully supported his fiance hiding their relationship from his family for the past five years they had been together, though it still sucked to have to spend Christmas without him. He shouldn't complain though as they had spent Christmas together for the past two years and they would be together again in a few days and they were spending new years together.

Virgil still missed him though.

He swiped away all his notifications, pouting as he found a good night message from Roman that was sent about two hours ago. Despite the fact that Roman was most likely asleep he sent him a text on discord, wondering if he was up

He almost dropped his phone in surprise when Roman called him on discord a minute later, having thought his phone had been on mute. He wasted no time joining the call, smiling as Roman's camera loaded and revealed a sleepy Roman in bed in what must be his childhood bedroom.

"Hey there, handsome." Roman said, smiling at him, and despite seeing him the day before he felt his chest ache from how much he missed him. God, he was clingy, wasn't he?

"Hi." Virgil, curled up on the couch, placing his phone on the coffee table, leaning it against an empty teacup to make sure he stayed in the picture despite the fact that the soft light from the christmas tree and the three candles on the coffee table wasn't really giving enough light for him to be very visible.

He should probably be blowing those candles out soon or they would melt completely in just an evening. Or he would fall asleep with them lit again and end up burning the apartment building down.

"You doing okay?" Roman asked carefully, because if it was one thing he was good at it was seeing right through Virgil.

"Mhm, I'm good. Kinda had a nightmare." He mumbled, words that made Roman frown and Virgil might have been focusing so much on how cute Roman's frowny face was that he almost didn't hear what Roman responded with.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that, Vee. Anything you need?" He said, sweet as always. Virgil couldn't wait to marry this man.

"No, not really. I don't even remember the dream, but I probably have a bruise on my shoulder from falling off the couch." Virgil said with a sigh. He couldn hear what was obviously a barely hidden snort of laughter and immediately glared at his fiance.

"You fell off the couch?" Roman wondered. Virgil crossed his arms over his chest.

"I can't believe you're bullying me the day before Christmas." He complained, trying and failing to keep a serious face when Roman giggled into a pillow.

"Oh, shut up." Virgil said, chuckling just a little because, damn it, Roman managed to make him falling off the couch into a kind of funny thing.

"You're okay though?" Roman wondered, looking more serious.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Ro. Miss you though." He said, knowing that if Roman had been home then he would be having his fiance's strong arms around him as he fell back asleep. Roman sighed, smiling sadly.

"Miss you too. It's nice seeing my parents, they're really happy hearing about my new job, but... yeah." Roman said, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah." Virgil echoed, understanding his frustration and mixed emotions, wishing he could crawl into Roman's arms and play with his hair and ease his stress.

They were both quiet for a while, Virgil beginning to feel tiredness creeping in again and he cuddled up with a decorative pillow. He knew they should be going to sleep, especially Roman who had already gone to bed and everything, but he didn't want to have to say goodbye to his fiance, it was comforting to have him there even if he wasn't really there.

"You look pretty in the light from the Christmas tree." Roman said, watching him through the screen with an absolutely sappy look on his face. Virgil, who was beginning to feel far too sleepy to feel flustered by comments like that, simply smiled at his fiance, feeling all warm and fuzzy and loved.

"Mhm, come home quick so you can appreciate it in person." Virgil told him, earning a small laugh from his fiance, which was then interrupted by a big yawn.

"Maybe you should get some of that sleep you were supposed to get two hours ago." Virgil suggested, referencing to his good night text.

"I know. You should sleep too." Roman said.

"Yeah, if I can." Virgil said with a small shrug, letting go of the pillow and getting up from the couch. He bent down to blow out the candles on the table, enjoying the Christmas-y scent from them.

Roman had bought the candles for him for the first advent, since they both absolutely loved candles and it was a must have when it was generally cold and dark as December was. Even better when the candles made their apartment smell nice.

"Don't worry, I'll come for any nightmares that dare frighten you." Roman promised, sounding reassuring and actually making Virgil feel a bit better despite how impossible his fiance's promise was.

"You're a three hour flight away, and how are you going to fight a literal dream?" Virgil wondered, unable to keep himself from annoying him just a little.

"I have my ways." Roman said proudly as Virgil picked his phone up, carrying it with him as he walked over to the christmas tree. He found the switch for the lights in the tree, turning them off since leaving them on constantly, no matter how pretty they were, was a bad idea.

He shuffled towards the bathroom, brushing his teeth then muting himself and leaving the camera facing away as he quickly went to the toilet. Then Virgil forced himself to their bedroom, undressing and crawling into the empty bed.

He placed his phone on Roman's side of the bed, spending a minute watching Roman who seemed to have almost fallen asleep during the time it took Virgil to get into bed. He didn't want to say anything and snap Roman out of his half asleep state, but Roman forced his eyes open, blinking repeatedly, clearly trying hard not to fall asleep.

"C'mon, Ro. get some sleep. I'll sleep too, I promise." Virgil said.

"Okay." Roman said after a moment's consideration. "But could we stay on call, please?"

Virgil was sure he was only asking that because he wanted to make sure to be there if Virgil had another nightmare and, well, Virgil did want him there if he woke up from another nightmare.

"Yeah, that's fine." He agreed, pulling the covers up to his chin and taking a deep breath.

It would of course have been better if Roman was actually home, for several reasons, but having him there over a voice call was helpful too, and it didn't take Virgil long to be drifting off, comforted by the fact that Roman would be home soon again and that they could have their own little and late christmas celebration together.

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Written: 30th & 31st December 2021 & 1st & 2nd January 2022
Published: 18th January 2022
Words: 1737

guess whos entire family got covid a day before they're supposed to go to work for 2 weeks... (they only got covid result back today). im fine but the rest of my family is suffering. guess no work for me. oh no ill stay home writing fanficiton and sleeping for 1-2 weeks noooo. anyway im feeling like the last man standing in a zombie apocalypse movie. how many days do u give me lmao.

anyway kinda wanna write one or two more parts to this hmmm