(Based off A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman)
Roman and Virgil were laying on the grass, looking up at the shimmering stars scattered across the beautiful black sky. They were only 10 at the time, a time where they were best friends, where they were inseparable. Roman would make jokes – Virgil would laugh. Roman would sing – They would become a duet. Roman had an idea – Virgil would help.
"Hey, look at that one!" Virgil exclaimed, pointing at a constellation, "It's called the big dipper, Logic told me about it once."
"Awe, cool! Can you see anymore?" Roman asked, staring intently at the sky, trying to spot one himself,
"N- Oh, wait, look!" Virgil pointed to a shape formed in the sky, "I don't recognise it, but it looks like a heart!" He smiled. Roman turned to look at the constellation. He was right, it was in the shape of a large heart in the sky. Roman then got an idea,
"Check this out!" He pointed his finger from star to star, and a red line followed it, creating a heart shaped dot to dot in the night sky,
"Oh, that's cool!" Virgil said, his eyes lighting up, and glimmering in the dark. Roman turned away from the stars to look at Virgil. He didn't know what the feeling was that he felt, but every time he and Virgil hung out in his other room – which was a large field, with a door that led to Roman's actual room – he got a weird feeling in his heart and stomach, and his face would heat up. He figured he just enjoyed spending time with his best friend,
"Hey, look!" Virgil said, nudging Roman's arm. He followed Virgil's gaze, to see a beautiful pastel-coloured sunrise,
"Oh, wow, that's beautiful…"
"Isn't it? Oh, I know!" He said, as he got his phone out,
"What are you doing?"
"Taking a photo!" He snapped a picture of the sunrise, then showed Roman. The photo had come out beautifully, but Roman knew one way to make it even better,
"Take another one, but with us two in it to!"
"Good idea!" Virgil got his phone in position and took another amazing photo, but this time with him and his friend in it too, which did make it ten times better,
"That's even better! Anyway, I'm gonna go tell Thomas to ask his mom to take him to see the new Disney movie, I really wanna see it!"
"Ok, bye Princey!" Virgil said, sinking down into his room,
"Bye Anxi!"
-1 Year Later-
This time, they were sat on Virgil's bed. All the sides had developed a new skill, they could create little clouds, filled with ideas and memories. That's exactly what Roman was doing with Virgil, showing him some ideas he had,
"Look," Roman said, showing Virgil an idea of his. In the usually empty field that they loved to visit together, was a giant castle. It was coloured white, with gold and red decorations, and even some purple. Virgil thought it was beautiful, "One day, I'm gonna make it, and we can live there!"
"W-we?" Virgil asked, a little confused,
"Yeah, we can live in a world that we design! Just us two!" Roman smiled. Virgil thought it was a great idea,
"Won't the others say it's crazy? I mean, making a castle like that would take…years!" Virgil said, thinking Roman's plan through,
"Well, they can say it all sounds crazy, they can say I've lost my mind, but I will make it, and we will live there!" He said, his eyes had physical stars in them, like you would see in a cartoon,
"But- "
"No buts, I have spent so long thinking about this! Every night I lie in bed, the brightest colours fill my head!" He created another cloud, showing photos of the castle, the gardens, the rooms, "A million dreams are keeping me awake! I think of what the world could be, a vision of the world I see!" He made the cloud bigger, until it became the room, "Just think, Anx, a million dreams is all it's gonna take!" Roman grabbed Virgil's hands as the room slowly faded back into Virgil's room,
"Well, if you're so sure…"
"Yep, I am!" Roman said, then sighed and smiled, "Just think, there's million dreams of the world we're gonna make…" He leant his forehead against Virgil's…only to be interrupted by Thomas summoning Roman, "Oh, uh…Thomas needs me, I'll see you soon, Anx!" He said, as he sunk down to the real world,
"Yep…Bye…" Virgil sighed, and flopped onto his bed. He got his phone out, and immediately smiled at the background picture.
-18 Years Later (Present day) -
Roman was sat in the movie room, with Virgil sat beside him with his favourite Stephen King book, The Shining,
"Virgil, look at this!" Roman said, gesturing to another idea cloud,
"Yeah…cool…" He said, not looking up from his book,
"You're not even looking!"
"Yeah, 'cause I'm trying to read!" He snapped. Roman sighed and made the cloud disappear,
"You're no fun anymore…"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, when we were little, you loved looking at my ideas, and hanging out with me! Then, when we got to around 15, you stopped caring…" Roman mumbled the last bit,
"Yeah, because I realised how stupid your ideas were!" Virgil said, still not taking his eyes off his book, but did flip him off quickly. This did it for Roman,
"Take. That. Back." Roman said, standing up from the sofa, clenching his fists,
"No…" Virgil grumbled. Roman felt something wet on his face…he was crying. He brushed the tears away and cleared his throat, making Virgil glance up for a second. Then, he began to sing a song from a new movie they'd all gone to see recently,
"There's a house we can build," He created the bubble of the castle again, and expanded it to fill the room, "Every room inside is filled, with things from far away!"
"You're not gonna change my mind with a stupid song, from a stupid movie, with stupid ideas…" Virgil said, closing the book and glaring at Roman. He paid no notice to the glare, and continued to sing,
"Special things I can pile, each one there to make you smile, on a rainy day!" He walked over to Virgil and moved his mouth with his fingers to make a smile,
"The hell!? Get off!" Virgil yelled, pushing him away, "I'm outta here, this is exactly why I stopped hanging out with you…Your stupid ideas, your stupid songs! You're just…" He groaned, "You're annoying as hell, and I want nothing else to do with you!" Virgil left the room, slamming the door shut. The second he got back to his own room, he began to cry. He didn't mean anything he said. He didn't want to stop hanging out, but they'd become so different, and he figured Roman didn't want to hang out with him anymore.
Once Virgil left the room, Roman made the room revert to its original design. He continued to sing quietly, but changed the words slightly,
"Y-you can say, you can say it all sounds crazy…You can say I've lost my mind…I…I do care if you call me crazy…Wanted to run away to a world that we designed…" Roman opened the door and left the room, "Cause every night I lie in bed, the brightest colours fill my head…" He walked down the hall towards his own room, "A million dreams are keeping me awake! I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see!" He realised as he sang, a younger version of himself was walking beside him, singing with him. It was a memory of him walking down that same hall after he and Virgil had got into an argument, what they were arguing about he couldn't remember. He figured that the memory had been edited slightly as the young Roman was singing a song from a movie that wasn't even out back then, "A million dreams is all it's gonna take…" He entered his room, and made his way to the door, that led to the field. As soon as he was on the grass, he looked up to see the magnificent castle, that had taken him years to build, the castle that he was so excited to show Virgil… The second Virgil entered his mind, he collapsed into tears on the grass, "A-A million dreams…f-for the world we were gonna make…" Roman choked as he sang. The younger version of him was gone. Suddenly, the bright skies of the night felt a lot darker, and not as friendly…
Until, he heard…
"However big, however small, let me be part of it all!" Roman could recognise that voice anywhere, "Share your dreams with me…" Roman turned to see Virgil standing beside him, his head was faced to the ground, and he had his hands in his pocket. Roman knew how much Virgil didn't like singing, so Roman was especially shocked, "Y-you may be right…you may be wrong…but say that you'll bring me along?" Virgil held his hand out and said,
"I-I'm sorry for what I said…I don't think your ideas are stupid…I—" He paused and coughed. Roman could tell he'd been crying, "I was just…upset…upset that we'd stopped spending time together, upset that we had grown so different…" He coughed again, "I was just, upset we weren't friends anymore…" Virgil ended his little monologue with a gesture with his hand that was out, "C-can we still be friends?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the ground.
Roman shot forwards and embraced Virgil in a tight hug,
"Yes! Yes of course! I never wanted to stop being your friend!" Roman said, tears streamed down his face.
They stayed in the hug for what felt like an eternity, until Virgil began to sing again,
"To the world you see…" Then, Roman joined in, knowing the song off by heart,
"To the world I close my eyes to see, I close my eyes to see…" Roman wrapped his hand around Virgil's and started to pull him towards the castle,
"Cause every night I lie in bed, the brightest colours fill my head—" Roman continued,
"A million dreams are keeping me awake!" Virgil finished. They continued their duet, until they finished the song, and they reached the top of the tower in the magnificent castle. It was Roman's bedroom and had a large balcony at the window. Roman pulled Virgil onto the balcony, and he was immediately amazed by the view,
"R-roman, this is…amazing!" Virgil said, smiled brightly for the first time in ages,
"I hoped you'd like it…" Roman looked up at the stars, then nudged Virgil's arm, "I also added that…" Virgil looked up, and his face heated up into a bright red:
It was the heart-shaped constellation, still joined up, but inside it was written R+V,
"Well, whatcha think?" Roman smirked, but Virgil didn't take his eyes off it,
"I-I…I don't…" Virgil was speechless,
"W-what…D-do you not like it?" Roman choked out, panicking, 'Of course he wouldn't feel the same way! Why the hell should he after the way you treated him!?' He thought, then began, "I-I'm so-"
"N-no…I…" Virgil looked at Roman, cutting him off, "I like it…It's really…nice…" Virgil mumbled, with a small smile on his face,
"O-oh, that's good…I thought I'd done something wrong and—" He was cut off by the sound of a notification,
"Oh, sorry…" Virgil said, digging his phone out his pocket. Roman glanced down, and his heart skipped a beat. Virgil's background was the photo they'd taken as kids, with the pastel-coloured sunrise, and the faint heart constellation, in the background,
"Y-you kept that photo?" Roman asked,
"Yeah, I—" He paused, "It's special to me…" Roman's face lit up like a Christmas tree,
"That's so cute!" He pulled Virgil into another hug,
"G-get off me!" Virgil said, but Roman knew he didn't mean it. They pulled out of the hug, "I—" Virgil began, but was cut off by Roman leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. It was quick, but it was enough to shut Virgil up for a minute.
They stood there in silence for a couple minutes, a nice and peaceful silence between them, staring up at the beautiful sky, smiling like the dorks that they were.
"Hey, um…V-Virgil?" Roman said, breaking the silence, "I-I was wondering…When we were kids, we said we'd both live in this castle…but if you changed your mind, that's fine, but…" Roman trailed off, nervous as to what Virgil would say in response,
"Y-yeah…" Virgil said, quietly,
"What?"
"Yeah…I'd like that a lot…"
The feeling that Roman always felt as a child whenever him and Virgil would hang out in the field returned, but this time, he knew what the feeling was…