Roman chomped on a banana as he walked into his living room. It was coming close to seven o'clock, and his friends would be over soon. They all had such busy schedules that they could only meet up for practice fairly late in the afternoon. Roman's roommate was laying on the couch, scrolling through his phone.
"Hey, Dis, my friends will be over to practice in a minute." Roman reminded him.
Kai pouted without looking away from his phone, "'Kay. I'll skidaddle skadoodle."
"Your mom is now a noodle." Roman grinned, watching as Kai stood up and cracked his back. Roman glanced at his roommates' hair, "Are you gonna dye it again soon?"
"Yeah, I was thinking maybe this weekend." Kai pulled at one of his brown locks. "I'm thinking gray again. Wanna help?"
"Ugh, I can't." Roman sighed, "I already agreed to help Pop Culture make her outfit for a one-two-women show she's making. But I can't wait to see the end result. It'll look flawless."
Kai snorted and walked past him, "Thanks. I'll be in my room, try not to destroy the place again."
"Sir, yes sir." Roman saluted the shorter man's retreating form. The two of them were randomly paired to be roommates freshman year, and they got along well enough that they decided to get an apartment together this year. They got on each other's nerves sometimes; Kai would leave his binders on the floor, Roman would accidently send a sword through the wall - the little things. But Roman knew he'd always come to his little prince's rescue, if need be, and that's what mattered.
There was a knock at the door and Roman quickly flung it open, grinning at whoever was on the other side. A short man greeted him with a very enthusiastic, "HELLO!"
"Hi, Silly." Roman said. He glanced around before asking, "Where's Performance?"
Just then, Silly jumped aside and an identical man was standing behind him. Roman was greeted with another excited, "HELLO!"
Roman stepped aside to let the Sides in, mumbling to himself, "Ah, there he is, okay."
Silly and Performance were each other's Sides, but they prefer not to fuse. Instead, they just hung off of each other; constantly holding hands or bumping shoulders. The two were inseparable, and very noisy. Roman adored them.
While the three waited for the others, they pushed the couch against the wall to make more room. They then got into a playful argument about the pros and cons of wearing socks with sandals (Roman was obviously on the con's side), which led to Silly laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his cheeks.
There was another knock at the door and Roman answered it. His friend Trivia waved at him and stepped inside. Roman glanced at the clock on the wall and pointed out, "Pop Culture's late."
"Did you know," Trivia started, "chronic lateness is a side effect of having a Type B personality?"
Roman tried to sound interested, "Really?"
"Scientists have tested it, and Type A people feel that a minute is 58 seconds and Type B people feel a minute is 77 seconds, and that time adds up. So Type B people are always late to things; while Type A people get impatient quicker." Trivia explained, mostly unprompted.
Roman nodded for a second, and when he couldn't come up with a response to that, he just ushered his friend inside, "Okay, go sit down."
The men joked around for a bit until there was a final knock at the door. Roman left the group to answer it once more and wasn't surprised to see Pop Culture panting in the hallway.
"We're here. I'm here. Yay." Pop said in between breaths. "I ran up all those stairs."
Roman grinned, "While I approve of your valiant effort and passion, we could have waited the three minutes it would've taken you to walk."
Pop grabbed his arm and pulled him out into the hall, the apartment door closing behind him. Roman frowned, confused and a little startled, as Pop spoke quickly. "Ro, this morning I met this guy and he looked exactly like you!"
Roman's expression went slack. Immediately, images of that Side came to mind. A prince would never lie, but even he didn't want to admit that the other man had been consuming his thoughts since they met. He didn't know what it was about him, but Roman couldn't stop replaying their conversation.
Pop Culture continued, "He said that he talked to you, too. He was very smart and kind, his name was-"
"Logic." Roman said, his voice distant. He frowned to himself, crossing his arms. He didn't need to talk to him. He already told him that they weren't Sides, because Roman was born Established. The fact that this Logic fellow was approaching his friends didn't sit well with him. It seemed like a good idea to avoid the other man entirely.
"Yeah!" Pop nodded enthusiastically. "You remember him? He said he wanted to meet Remy and Missy."
Roman's heart tripped, leaving a burn in his chest. "What?"
Pop nodded once more, watching him carefully. "Uh-huh. He said you told him about them. I don't think he wants to fuse with you anymore; I think he got the hint."
"...Oh." Roman wasn't sure why, but he felt like he was just kicked in the gut by some sort of witch … dragon… dragon witch. He scratched the back of his neck and chewed his lip. "Yeah, that's great for Remy and Missy."
One of Pop Culture's left hands tapped her shoulder, she looked at it, and the other left hand held up a napkin. "Oh, gracias." She held out the napkin to him, "He gave this to us."
Roman took the napkin, looking down at the faded phone number scribbled on it. He rubbed the soft paper with his thumb. Why did he suddenly feel like his princess was stolen from her castle?
He decided to ignore his emotions; stuffing the napkin in his pocket. "Okay, no more talk of that dweeb. C'mon, the others are waiting."
"But-"
"Let's go, vamonos."
The two went back into the apartment and Roman entered Director Mode. He ignored anything that wasn't dance practice, encouraging his friends to repeat the trickier parts of their routine over and over.
By the end of it, Performance was dizzy from spinning; Pop Culture had unfused out of exhaustion; and Trivia was slouched against the couch, taking a breather. Silly, who was just there to support his Side, had gotten distracted shortly after practice started, and was now asleep under the kitchen table. All in all, it was a very successful night.
"Great job everyone," Roman said, glancing at the clock, "But it's almost Kai's bedtime and he gets salty when the music's too loud."
"I should get that one home anyway." Performance muttered, walking to the kitchen. He crawled under the table and gently shook Silly awake.
Trivia yawned, "Did you know, humans spend a third of their life asleep?"
"That's great, buddy." Roman said, opening the door for the Side. They said their goodbyes, and then Performance and Silly were leaving shortly after. That only left Harry and Theo; who were sitting on the ground next to each other.
Theo helped Harry up, who was griping, "Why couldn't you have a more relaxed hobby?"
"Dancing is fun!" Theo responded.
"Nice work today, ladies." Roman said, patting them each on a shoulder. Theo grinned at him, but Harry was frowning.
Harry jabbed him in the chest, "You better text that boy."
"I said hush-hush about the man-crush!" Roman hissed.
Harry raised an eyebrow, "Who said anything about a crush?"
Well. Shit. Roman's face grew redder than his favorite jacket. He closed his eyes and let out a sharp breath. "I didn't mean it like that."
Harry crossed her arms, a smug smile on her face. "Suuure."
"Heritage, let's go, my feet hurt." Theo whined, tugging on her Side's sleeve. Harry agreed quietly and the two made their way to the door. Harry left first, waving goodbye at Roman. Theo left with a final, "You know she's only teasing. We don't care if you don't talk to him. He just seemed nice."
Roman was quiet for a second, his fingers itching to pull out the napkin in his pocket. "I'll help him get in contact with Remy and Missy. But that's all."
Theo shrugged, "Okay. See ya at practice!"
She closed the door and Roman was left alone in his living room. After a short moment of just standing there, thinking; he turned off the lights and headed down the hall. He stopped outside Kai's room. Peeking inside, he saw that the other man had fallen asleep while doing his homework. Parks and Rec was playing on his computer, and Roman almost wanted to walk in and pause it. He decided against it, knowing that Netflix would eventually ask if Kai wanted to continue watching.
Roman wished that his roommate wasn't asleep yet. He kind of wanted to ask him about this whole Logic thing. Kai had never met any of his Sides, but he was a knight of Roman's royal court, and his opinion was trusted.
This led to Roman laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. His mind was doing laps, running circles around the enigma that was Logic Side. Roman realized he didn't even know Logic's Established name. Roman then realized that he wanted to know Logic's Established name.
That certainly won't do. Pushing these thoughts away, Roman picked up his phone and rolled on his side. He noticed he had some texts from his group chat with Remy and Kai.
Remy sent a billion and one messages about some new Side he and Missy met. Roman didn't read all of them, but he seemed really excited to meet them tonight. Kai sent back one (1) thumbs up emoji.
Roman started to type: Hey, I think I have another one to send your way lmao
He stared at the message before quickly deleting it. He tried again: Haaaaave you met Logic?
That wasn't right either. Delete; again.
That's gr8 bro; i met a hottie that looks like u
Getting worse. Once more:
After you meet this guy, you'll only have one left.
Roman sighed, erasing the message one last time. Finally, he closed out of the group chat, sending back nothing more than a 'Hell yeah'.
He grabbed his pants from the floor and fished in his pocket for the napkin. In the darkness, he squinted at the numbers. One by one, he punched them into his phone.
You're side's name are Remus "Sleep" Side and Missy "Complements" Side. They're good people. Don't hurt them.
His finger hovered over the send button, but his stomach was twisted in too much of a knot for him to go through with it. He ended up deleting that message as well. He was never going to craft something elegant enough to express himself; so he went the exact opposite route.
It was time for Casual Banter.
How's the Search for the Sides goin? :p
Perfect. Roman pushed send before he could chicken out. Afterwards, he turned his phone on silent and dropped it on the ground. He didn't allow himself to look at it again that night. Instead, he waited until his mind quieted enough for sleep to overtake him.
The ball was in Logic's court now.
Tell me what you think!