Roman kicked off his shoes at the foot of his bed and dropped his backpack next to his desk. He was tired, what's new. His feet finally hurt less, at least. He was also immensely grateful to say that for once he didn't have to spend all night on homework. He had something due at the end of the week, but he didn't have to do it tonight. He was terrible at starting homework early anyway, so there was no point in trying today.
Part of him was glad that the Sanders didn't kick him back so he wouldn't have to be doing this all over again at a new school. He'd only had two families that returned right away, but he did much less awful shit at their houses than he did here. It only made sense that they would send him away, but he didn't mind still being here. They'd probably see reason eventually, so Roman shouldn't get his hopes up or anything.
A snack and breaking out the art supplies sounded like a pleasant way to pass the time. He'd sketched something he really liked in English, and he wanted to give it a proper go and not on thin notebook paper. The coffee table was glass, so he could transfer it to his sketchbook with that. He gathered the supplies he needed and headed back downstairs, dropping off the stuff on the coffee table and heading into the kitchen for a bite to eat.
The pantry didn't really reveal anything appetizing. He'd had mostly chips after school lately so he didn't want those, and they'd long since finished those peanut butter filled pretzels much to Roman's dismay. Roman scanned the fridge and freezer. He could have a healthy snack of an apple or something… or he could make some of those biscuits made entirely out of cheese they had with dinner last night and dip them in pizza sauce. The answer was obvious. He pulled out the cheese biscuits and lined them up on parchment paper in the toaster oven on the counter. He cooked a few extras in case a wild Virgil appeared. He seemed to have junk food sensing powers.
Roman went to the coffee table to clear off some space to use it. The more he removed, the more it revealed it hadn't been cleaned in a while. Spills and fingerprints would mess with his ability to use the table as a lightbox, so he grabbed the glass cleaner and a rag to clean it off. After cleaning both sides of the coffee table, he noticed the other glass in the living room was a little smudged up. The cabinet windows on the entertainment center had doggy nose prints on the lower parts, along with the windows. He already had it in his hands, so why not? Roman passed through and cleaned up all the glass in the living area, the mirror in the front hall, the microwave and stove door, and the window in the kitchen.
The toaster oven dinged and distracted him from cleaning off the front of the dishwasher. He had completely forgotten he'd put those in. Roman wiped the last corner of the dishwasher and washed the ammonia off his hands, leaving the cleaner and rag on the counter. He grabbed a plate and served himself half of the biscuits and dumped a little pizza sauce from the jar on his plate. Some part of his mind registered that they were fresh out of the toaster oven, but he picked one up to dip like an idiot and burned his fingers, anyway.
Roman grumbled while he ran his fingertips under cold water at the sink. He pulled them out to check if they were better yet, but they were still hot, so he kept them under the water a little longer. Virgil appeared as expected, which cheered Roman back up a bit. The idea of Virgil having junk food senses was funny, and he loved it when Virgil proved him right.
"I made you some, too," Roman motioned with his head to the toaster oven. Virgil grinned wildly and just stole Roman's plate and left the kitchen. Roman laughed out loud at the audacity of this bitch and shook his head. He pulled his fingers out again, and they felt fine now, so he served himself the other half in the same manner. He had the good sense to get a fork this time. He threw out the parchment paper and sat at the table, pulling out his phone to wait for his food to cool down. He saw the date and realized he probably needed to do laundry, so he got up to head upstairs and grab his basket.
He long since hasn't needed to sort out his clothes into loads. His brights and darks were already all faded, and he only had a few whites, not enough to do a load with bleach. He just dumped the entire basket in the wash and put in some laundry sauce, starting the wash and bringing the basket back upstairs.
Roman stared around his room, not remembering what he was doing last. He paused and concerned if there was anything he needed to do. Probably clean his bedroom? There wasn't much to pick up, just a few art supplies were out for some reason. He didn't have that many things in his name to mess up. His loose stuff like old keepsakes or hobby items all fit in one drawer in the dresser, so it was easy to keep clean. But he should come back up to wipe off his desk with an all-purpose cleaner and dust. Roman yawned and returned downstairs for some water and to grab the cleaners.
He put away the filter pitcher and drank water, noticing his snack on the table. Oh. Roman chuckled to himself and sat down at the table, eating his four cheese biscuits and pizza sauce. He had completely forgotten he made them. They were at an edible temperature now, though. Convenient forgetfulness, for once.
After rinsing the dishes, Roman grabbed the duster and all-purpose cleaner to go handle his room. He dusted some shelves in the living room as he passed, just because he had noticed they were dusty and covered in dog fur. They mentioned they got a maid service once a month for that. How could Lita possibly produce this much wiry fur? Baffling. Roman headed upstairs to clean his bedroom.
Dusting the bookshelf in his room revealed that Lita must not come in here much since there was barely any dog fur on it compared to the downstairs. He was relatively certain Lita just napped in Thomas and Patton's room until Patton appeared or something fun happened. Roman dusted off the books, his dresser, the desk, and the nightstand, then wiped down surfaces. There were plenty of eraser bits and broken pencil leads after the cluster-fuck of homework he had to do. Cleaning off the homework wreckage and such from the desk made it look much nicer, despite his pile of books and papers he hadn't quite gotten around to organizing into something nicer looking yet. He organized his colored pencils by the rainbow in the organizer and took the cleaners back downstairs to put away.
What the hell was he doing again? Roman put the cleaners back on the shelf in the laundry room. He swore he was doing something. He had no idea what he was doing. The washer was going, which reminded him he started that. Maybe that was the thing. He clearly still had time to wait, though. Video games? Video games. Roman headed out to the living room and paused to make sure no one else was coming in to use the TV. Virgil didn't reappear, and Thomas wasn't even in his office. Seemed safe enough to him. There were quests to be had and demons to slay. Roman switched the TV input and turned on the game system to play, settling down on the floor in front of the TV to kick some lich ass.
Having free afternoons was a weird experience. Weirder than the forced days off, since he was kind of stuck in a room with Thomas for those. But this was totally up to him. He couldn't remember the last time he had so much free time completely to himself. It was… wrong? It felt wrong. But also nice. It was wrrice. No. That was dumb. Whatever. He had an amulet that unlocked a labyrinth. Fuck real life. He made sure he had enough healing items and repaired his armour, absolutely raring to go venture into it.
Something warm pressed into his thigh while he was fighting some goblins and jumped. He paused the game and glanced down. Lita had laid her head on his lap and was looking up to him pleadingly. Roman couldn't help himself from melting a little and cooing, dropping his controller to scratch her behind her ears. Lita's tongue bleped out and Roman could have died. He pet her a few times and she got up and trotted over to the back door and stared longingly at Roman. Roman got up to let her outside and followed her out. Lita bolted into the yard and ran it in three loops before stopping to sniff around near the tree in the backyard and used the restroom. She stuck her tongue out and happily cantered back over to the door. Roman headed back in and returned to his game when Lita went to go get some water.
Things in the labyrinth were going well, but they were intense. He went into a room that had a bunch of greater liches in it and he nearly bit the dust fighting them all. He got plenty of potions from the room, but it miffed him that he didn't get something cool like a weapon or rare item. Single-handedly killing four evil wraiths at the same time should have at least gotten some new boots. He saved and continued forward, anyway.
"Hey, Roman," He vaguely heard someone say while he was eyeballing a hallway that looked like it might have a trap.
"Hey," Roman responded automatically. Traps meant the game was protecting something, probably. He was tempted. Roman made sure he healed up and put poison immunity on and headed down the hall. The poison immunity paid off, but he should have done something to resist fire damage since he killed three potions from all the burn damage. He was rewarded with a giant skeleton monster and a better sword, though. Vindication! He saved again and kept going forward.
"Do you want anything for dinner?" Someone asked and Roman chewed on his lip while he thought and killed a small army of evil rats.
"Roast boar would be helpful," Roman suggested after pondering it for a second. He could use a fortitude boost right now. The rats didn't do a lot of damage, but it was impossible to dodge them all.
"In the real world, Roman," The voice sounded bemused. Oh shit. Roman paused the game and rubbed his incredibly dry eyes.
"Sorry," Roman muttered, wishing for moisture to return to his burning eyes.
"It's fine," Thomas sighed and laughed a little. "I can relate, honestly. But I'm just about to cook dinner and want to know if anything sounds good," He said genially.
"Oh, um, ask Virgil," Roman supplied and rubbed his face again. When was the last time he blinked and how long were his eyebrows furrowed?
"Is there a reason you're not wearing the gloves?" Thomas inquired. Roman turned around and saw Thomas leaning over the back of the couch. Roman froze and looked at his ungloved hands. Whoops.
"Uh, I forgot to put them back on, honestly," Roman replied sheepishly. "I promise I didn't freak out about anything while they were off, though," Roman added. Well, maybe he did a little at school, but his arms were untouched, so he must not have panicked badly enough to do any damage. Gym class was stressful again. He hadn't gotten back grades on his packets and he hadn't attracted a random bully or anything yet, so things were mostly okay. The people in his morning English class even friended him on twitter. Though he hoped he had implied he took the gloves off more recently than after he got to school in the morning.
"All right. Do you mind putting them back on?" Thomas requested, sounding less peeved and more concerned. Roman nodded hastily and leaned back to get them out of his jeans pocket to slide them on. Thomas sighed with relief. "Just for my own mollification, show me your arms?" Thomas made a twisting motion with his finger. Roman turned around and held them straight out and rotated them for Thomas to see. Thomas smiled and nodded, apparently mollified. "Thanks. I appreciate you putting up with them for me. So, dinner? I already asked Virgil. I want to know if you want anything," Thomas said pointedly.
"I'll eat anything, it's fine," Roman said dismissively.
"I know you'll eat anything, but I still don't know what food you actually like to eat," Thomas urged, looking inquisitively at Roman.
"I like your cooking. Patton's is seasoned oddly sometimes, but it's all been fine," Roman replied with a small shrug.
"Patton's cooking used to be significantly worse. I made him take a few cooking classes. He used to think five tablespoons was a reasonable amount of seasoning for anything. The grill incident wasn't the only time we had to throw food out because we couldn't eat it," Thomas responded and shook his head with a light chuckle. Roman stared at Thomas in amazement. Did they actually throw out edible food?
"That… why?" Roman asked incredulously. "That's… food," Roman stammered out, completely baffled by this information.
"If it's too disgusting to eat, then it's too disgusting to eat," Thomas raised his eyebrow and said something redundant.
"I can't… even," Roman felt like his mind was melted. If it was turned into a charcoal brick by a fireball, that was one thing. But trashing it just because something was seasoned badly? That didn't make any sense.
"Okay," Thomas drawled curiously. "Well, is there anything you hate then?" He inquired and motioned towards Roman.
"Um, there are some textures I don't like, and I'm not a fan of brussel sprouts, but I won't waste food," Roman answered him, still feeling really confused.
"We had brussel sprouts last weekend, and you ate some," Thomas said, furrowing his eyebrows at Roman. "Why didn't you say anything?" He asked, looking upset.
"I already said I won't waste food," Roman repeated and looked curiously at Thomas.
"So say if Patton made peas and there was half a container of pepper flakes in it, you'd eat it?" Thomas posited incredulously, looking at Roman intensely.
"… Yeah?" Roman replied, not following what Roman was trying to get at. It was food. The texture from the flakes sounded awful, but he wouldn't waste the food.
"You are a braver man than I. Okay, so. No brussel sprouts. What about those textures?" Thomas questioned and drummed his fingers on the couch.
"Oh, uh, how… Gritty stuff and stuff that is mushy when it… shouldn't be? There are also some things that just sort of… hit my palette weird, but I don't have any idea how to describe that," Roman supplied. "It only makes me kind of sick, it's fine, though," Roman said, shaking his head.
"You shouldn't force yourself to eat food that makes you sick, Roman," Thomas said emphatically and leaned on his arm while he looked a little frustrated.
"I'm not that used to having options, Thomas," Roman replied blithely and sighed. Even with the Finleys he just made what they bought him, and sometimes there wasn't enough for him to eat a complete meal. He'd always take what he was given. It was better than starving.
"Kid, I swear every time you open your mouth I feel the need to hug you and tell you that things are going to be okay," Thomas exhaled hard as he held his head and shook it lightly.
"I'm… sorry?" Roman apologized, not understanding what Thomas was trying to say. He didn't know how Thomas put up with Roman annoying him all the time.
"It's not your fault. Is there anything we've made you particularly liked?" Thomas asked, running his hand through his hair and seeming a little discouraged. Roman paused for a moment while he waited for a further reaction, but Thomas just exhaled and patiently looked to Thomas for an answer. He didn't seem as frustrated anymore, and Roman loosened back up.
"That pizza you made was probably my favourite thing," Roman responded brightly. "The stuffed chicken breasts were fantastic, too," He added.
"It's even better if we let the dough rest overnight," Thomas said temptingly, holding up a finger.
"You're kidding," Roman eyed him curiously. He didn't think he'd ever had pizza as amazing as Thomas's in his life and he couldn't comprehend how it could possibly be tastier.
"Nope. How about I make some tonight so we can have it for dinner tomorrow?" Thomas offered with a small smile.
"Show me how!" Roman nearly jumped up right there but caught himself, gripping at the floor.
"Only if you pick what's for dinner tonight," Thomas pointed at Roman. Roman chewed his lip. He didn't know what to choose. His shoulders slumped a bit, and he grabbed one of his fingers nervously. "Too hard?" Thomas asked softly.
"I just don't want… to pick wrong," Roman admitted quietly. "What did Virgil say he wanted?" He inquired, hoping for at least a starting point.
"Spicy and crunchy," Thomas reported. "Picking meals is hard for him, so he usually just gives flavours or something like that. I read that choice paralysis is common with PTSD. Is it the same for you?" Thomas prodded and looked pointedly at Roman. Roman rolled his eyes and sighed. He managed to not say 'I'm fine' this time, at least. Maybe it was true for Roman, maybe it wasn't and he was just dumb.
"I, uh, I am completely blanking, to be honest," Roman replied impassively, trying to think of dinner. He desperately wanted to learn how to make pizza dough. But he didn't want to pick wrong.
"Yeah, I assume it would have to be some sides or something. We don't have the stuff for the things I usually make when he asks for that," Thomas shrugged, tilting his head to the side.
"Uh, tortilla soup?" Roman suggested. It was the easiest one to make of what he thought of. "I mean, it's a bit hot for soup, but it's spicy and crunchy," He added a little sheepishly. Maybe that was stupid.
"Oh, that's perfect! I didn't think of that. We can make that quickly in the pressure cooker, even. We'll chase it with ice cream to cool down. Pat will be pleased about that, honestly. Save the game and I'll show you how to make the pizza dough," Thomas smiled and stood up straight.
Roman nodded rapidly and turned back around to save the game as fast as it would let him. His knee bobbed impatiently while he waited for the saving screen to finish processing. He didn't know how to bake bread, and pizza dough was probably the coolest place to start. Roman nearly tripped as he rushed into the kitchen after Thomas.