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"Ugh, I didn't mean for any of that to happen earlier!" Roman groaned into a pillow. "I mean, it was an accident!"

Virgil raised his eyebrow and shot him a Look from the chair he was sitting on.

"Spilling the juice was, yeah," Virgil partially agreed. "But I don't think you could call the rest of it a mistake, Princey."

"But I didn't mean to say most of that!" Roman protested. "It just came out!"

"But you did say it," Virgil sighed. "Ro, couldn't you have just apologized instead of arguing about whether he should have had his blanket with him or not?"

"But he shouldn't have had it with him! It's a table, not a bed!"

Virgil pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Dude, I think you're missing the point. You still ruined something important to him. If he had been wearing a sweater instead, and you dumped juice on that, would you have said something different?" Virgil asked.

"How should I know?" Roman replied dramatically.

"I just don't think it really matters whether he should have had the blanket at the table or not. I mean, to begin with, it's not like we have a rule against it, and even if we did, I don't think anyone exactly told him that," said Virgil. "But even if we did, do you have any idea how long making something like that takes? He probably spent months working on it, and I think you'd be pretty upset if someone else dumped juice on something you spent months working on. And don't pretend you never bring your sketchbooks to the table, Ro."

At this, Roman shifted uncomfortably.

"Plus, in case you forgot, we kinda fucked up pretty badly with him, remember?" Virgil sighed regretfully. "Like, he's probably still upset about what we did, so I don't exactly blame him for not being so forgiving when you fucked up again."

"… This doesn't have anything to do with that, though," Roman argued.

"It does," Virgil denied. "We don't live in a vacuum, Princey. He hasn't forgotten what we did any more than you've forgotten what he's done in the past. Patterns of behavior matter. Being a jerk once is a mistake, but if you keep doing it, you're an asshole."

"What, so I'm an asshole now?"

Virgil ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"I didn't say that," Virgil stressed. "And if you're an asshole, then I think I'm in the same boat, but I think you might wanna think a bit about what kind of person you are, Roman. Because we all make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we don't need to fix them. Even if you don't apologize directly, which you probably should, you need to behave like you're sorry and make amends."

He took a deep breath in, looking Roman in the eye.

"Don't let yourself become someone you aren't."

Roman crossed his arms, looking away to break the eye contact.

"Like he's apologized for everything he's done."

"None of us have apologized for everything, including me and you," Virgil pointed out. "Things used to be pretty ugly, and keeping a tally chart of every little thing we've all done isn't going to help anyone. But we're all trying to move forward, including him, and if you want to be a part of that, you're going to have to forgive some things."

Roman stayed silent.

"Do you want to be part of that? Because I thought you said you liked spending time with him?" Virgil questioned. "You said you cared about him."

Roman paused for a long time, considering.

"… I do…," Roman admitted quietly. "I do like spending time with him. He's funny and nice when he wants to be, and I have a good time with him when we aren't arguing. But when we do argue…"

"We all argue sometimes, Princey."

"I know," he sighed. "It's just… hard to let go of these things sometimes."

"I get that," Virgil accepted. "But you can't be his friend and also keep acting like this. Because if you do, Janus isn't going to want to spend time with you."

Virgil waited for Roman to absorb what he'd said, watching him quietly mull the words over. Eventually, Roman sighed.

"… Okay. I'll apologize later."

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Sorry this chapter is a bit short, but eh, that's just how it goes.

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