[Samuel x Roman]

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Roman nodded as he took the strawberry. The whole ordeal would be over if Indie could just kindly excuse herself from the picture. But of course, that wasn't going to happen and Roman just had to get used to that. He sighed and bit into the berry.

"I just -- ugh -- this entire shitshow makes me miserable sometimes. And it's worse for my mother." Roman sighed again as he thought of Ingrid. All she wanted was for her sons to get along, but Brooklyn was making that impossible. Roman was willing to make amends if Brooklyn was.

Roman stood up, carefully setting Lady down on the floor, and made his way into the kitchen. He had intended only to fill up his orange juice but since Samuel was standing there, he wrapped his arms around his shoulders and leaned into him gently.

"I love you. And I know that you're the only thing that makes all this better."
 
“I love you too,” Samuel mumbled, enjoying the feeling of Roman's arms around him, “and I know we don’t talk about Brooklyn much, but you don’t need to see him and have an anxiety attack for us to talk about him, if you feel like you need to I’ll always be here to listen, kay?”

Samuel didn’t give him enough time to answer before suddenly blurting out, “Shit, the bacon,” and twisting himself out of Roman’s grip to hurry and rescue the food before it was too late, he had meant to check in on them every once in a while because he didn’t actually know for how long you were supposed to microwave bacon. He got them out of the microwave, burning his hands slightly in the process and placed the plate on the counter to assess the damage.

“Well, it looks a little crispy, but it’s food,” Samuel chuckled, and grabbed a plate for each of them so they could dig in on the bland and dry scrambled eggs, too crispy bacon and not at all fitting for the meal strawberries. Samuel was honestly kind of proud of accomplishing something at least.

The next couple of days Samuel spent making sure Roman was okay, he was usually pretty good at recovering from things like that, but in case he was feeling extra sensitive Samuel wanted to be there for him.

He was reading on the couch with Roman next to him working on some sketches Samuel didn’t know was for work or for fun, when suddenly there was a knock on the door and Lady started to bark. The sudden ruckus made Samuel jump a little, he was tired enough to have been reading the past page three times without really absorbing it so the sound had scared him a little. He had woken up twice due to nightmares that night and now he knew what they were about, but he preferred not to think about it and he hadn’t bothered to tell Roman about it yet, it was far from the first time he had a bad dream about his dad, he got them sometimes, it had just been happening a little more frequently the last couple of days.

“I’ll get it,” Samuel yawned once he had recovered from the surprise and headed over to the door, he couldn’t focus on his book anyways so he didn’t mind putting it down for a while. To his surprise, the people on the other side of the door were Matthew and Elissa. Together. Samuel looked at them in utter confusion for a moment before going, “uh, hello?”

“We were in the neighbourhood so we thought we’d come by,” Matthew explained and rolled his eyes at how confused Samuel had gotten by the visit, “can we come in, or are you busy?”

“Nah we aren’t doing anything, as long as you don't spend all time talking about the Persian Empire you are free to invade our home,” Samuel smiled and stepped aside to let both of them in. That’s when he noticed it. They were holding hands.
 
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"Ah, fuck," Roman spat as he smudged his drawing by accident. He had jumped when Lady had barked, causing his hand to smudge the charcoal he was working with. Luckily it wasn't for work -- no, this was a recreational piece that he was probably going to put on the wall in his studio at the tattoo parlour.

He looked up when Matthew spoke and noticed Elissa standing behind him. This wasn't surprising. He spoke to Elissa on Snapchat and Facebook basically every day, and he knew she had been spending quite a lot of time with Matthew. They were friends now. Roman didn't hate Matthew anymore so he didn't mind.

What was surprising, however, was the sight of Elissa with her hand in Matthew's. That was unexpected.

"Hey, princess," she said to Roman, using her nickname for him. She glided over to him, looking like a modern Aphrodite with her floaty white top and pale grey skinny jeans. Her hair brushed her hips, and her makeup was simple but lovely. She wore chunky tan heels and kissed the back of Matthew's hand before letting it go.

"Hey, Prince Charming," he replied, using his own nickname. "When the hell did this happen?" He didn't need to specify what he was talking about.
 
"Uh, a little while back," Matthew shrugged as if this wasn't kind of huge news but he was blushing, which was sweet, "a couple of weeks actually,"

In all honesty Samuel couldn't be that surprised, Matthew had been texting him a suspicious amount of questions wondering if he could explain how you knew if you liked someone as more than a friend and when he had known he liked Roman in "that way". But it was still Matthew who had always been very insistent on dating being unnecessary and lame. He wasn't going to mention that though, if his friend was happy, Samuel was happy.

Samuel plopped back into the couch next to Roman, making sure there was room for the other two as well, the other couple, and urged Lady to come up and sit in his lap so she would stop excitedly jumping up the newly arrived guests in an excited greeting.

"Well somehow it's less unexpected than it probably should be,"
Samuel chuckled as he ruffled Lady's soft fur.

"Yeah it just kind of happened," Matthew shrugged once again as he and Elissa sat down. He was looking over at her a little awkwardly as if he didn't know what to do and needed her support, Samuel could understand that, he knew Matthew hadn't actually dated anyone prior to this, and that he could be pretty weird with feelings so it made sense.
 
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Roman shifted over so the others could fit and set his sketchbook down on the coffee table. Elissa sighted Lola and went to scoop her up. When she came back, she found that there wasn't much room on the couch left, so rather than being cramped, she sat down in Matthew's lap and set Lola on her own.

"I'm offended that we didn't know sooner," Roman complained loudly, leaning back into Samuel's chest.

"Stop whining. He had to get the clear from my brothers before we could broadcast it," Elissa chuckled, her Irish accent still pronounced and pure after many years of living in Australia. She tickled Lola behind the ears and dropped a kiss to he top of Matthew's head. Then, she noticed Roman's sketchbook.

"Holy shit! Sweetie, look at it," Elissa urged Matthew, pointing to the drawing of the marbles Roman was doing in charcoal. "That's incredible, it looks like a photo."

Roman watched Matthew, waiting to see if he would actually compliment him or just brush it off like he definitely would have a year ago.
 
"Oh," Matthew said first and Samuel waited anxiously to see if he would just shrug and talk about something that was more interesting, "that's pretty cool actually,"

It was a pretty good response. Samuel hadn't expected him to be incredibly impressed or anything, everyone there knew "pretty cool" was a huge understatement though.

But then Matthew continued, while wrapping his arms around Elissa to pet the bunny in her lap, as if what he was about to say was something he always would have said to Roman.

"Samuel hasn't been shutting up about the fact you got a job tattooing, congrats, I guess," of course it was Matthew so he had to add a slightly dismissive I guess, but other than that this was kind of huge. Samuel wasn't sure if Matthew was trying even harder now because of Elissa but he honestly didn't mind if she was the reason, it meant they maybe would be able to get along at some point, because they did share a lot of the same interest so it was kind of sad that they clashed personality wise.
 
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While not as nice as some of the others he had received, Matthew's response was better than what Roman had expected of him. It was probably due to Elissa -- the girl seemed to soften Matthew's coarse edges, to balance his flaws and make him a better person.

Roman was glad that Matthew had found that person, and not because he benefited from his niceness. He was glad because he knew how lovely it was to have someone love you like that. Samuel loved him like that.

"Thanks," Roman said to Matthew softly, giving him a genuine smile. Their personalities clashed quite a bit, but that didn't mean that they couldn't potentially be friends.

Elissa leaned over to touch Samuel's arm, where the tattoo sat. Her hair smelled like vanilla. "Did you do that?" she asked Roman.

"Yep," said Roman proudly.

"It looks amazing," Elissa congratulated, giving Roman the biggest smile. She then leaned back and turned to Matthew. "Would you ever get a tattoo?" she asked him sweetly.
 
Samuel gladly showed the other two his tattoo when Elissa complimented Roman on how good it looked, never missing a chance to show off his boyfriend’s work since he was so very proud of him. Matthew didn’t need to see it though, Samuel had already shown him it plenty of times at uni.

"I don't know, I'm not opposed to the idea?" Matthew answered his girlfriend, he had moved his hands from petting Lola to Elissa's hair, braiding a small section of her hair, Samuel had seen him do the same to Gabi’s hair a couple of times, but this seemed more affectionate somehow. It was sweet, although, Samuel was mostly just impressed that he could do it, Samuel had no idea how to, not that he needed to know what with Roman’s hair being short, he was the only person whose hair Samuel played with, "But I wouldn't know what to get,”

Samuel would have said the joke about him not being allowed to get tattooed by anyone other than Roman if he ever decided to get one if It hadn’t been Matthew. Samuel felt like he wouldn’t appreciate it as much as other people to be honest. But if he actually did want to get one at some point Samuel would definitely urge him to get one by Roman, because Samuel knew Roman actually would be sad if a friend went to someone else and hopefully Matthew and Roman would actually be friends by that point.

“Why? Would you want me to get one?”
Matthew asked his girlfriend and reached for her arms in search for a hair tie, frowned a little when he didn’t find one and started on another braid instead.
 
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"I don't want you to do or get or be anything -- you're perfect just the way you are," Elissa said sweetly, and instead of retching, Roman grinned. She was so sweet with Matthew, who was probably in his first relationship and therefore deserved someone who actually respected him. Everyone deserved that.

"But, like, if you wanted to get one I'd support you. I think it would look nice on you." Elissa smiled again and brushed a strand of hair behind Matthew's ear.

They were actually a really cute couple. Elissa seemed to balance out Matthew's doucheness, which was always welcomed. Roman reached over to the coffee table to pick up a hair tie London had left and handed it to Matthew.

"So how are you handling the overwhelming pressures of having a princess be your girlfriend?" Roman asked Matthew jokingly. He often referred to Elissa as a princess, because she was so refined. She chuckled and kicked him gently on the knee.
 
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“Not all that overwhelming at all,” Matthew said almost as if he was unaware of the fact the Roman was joking, “She’s the kind hearted and sweet kind of princess,”

He kissed her cheek and finished off the braid with the hair tie given to him by Roman, now Elissa had one braid a little off to the side to her face, gorgeously mixing in with her golden hair. Matthew still continued to make random little braids after that though, but let them fall out without caring about acquiring new hair ties.

“Yeah, honestly, I bet Matthew is the most high maintenance,” Samuel joked, or well he said it in a somewhat joking tone, it wasn’t that much of a joke

“What? Shut up,” Matthew objected somewhat half heartedly, he couldn't really argue against it that much.

“Elissa are you prepared for all your dates to be fancy brunches at places ‘you’ve probably never heard of’?” Samuel continued despite Matthew’s complaints. Elissa honestly seemed like the type of person who’d like that though, maybe that was what made them work? Both of them having kind of high standards for how they want things to be with things working out because they were similar as opposed to Samuel and Roman who worked as a couple because they complemented each other.
 
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"Are you kidding me? I love brunch. And the places that he's taken me to so far have been great so I'm not complaining." Elissa chuckled again, a beautiful sound, and daintily fixed the strap of her shoe so it sat in a more comfortable fashion around her ankle. Everything she did was graceful and pretty. She truly was a princess.

Roman turned to his own prince and poured at him. "Why don't you ever take me to fancy brunch places?" he teased his boyfriend, poking him on the end of the nose.

"Besides you not getting up before eleven in the morning?" Elissa joked.

Roman flicked her on the knee. "Shut up."

Elissa let out a loud, exaggerated gasp and threw her arms around Matthew's shoulders, pressing them close together as if she was leaning into him for support. "Sweetie, Roman has hurt me most grievously. Kill him."
 
Elissa pinpointed the exact reason why Samuel did not, in fact, bring Roman to brunch. That and the fact that going out for brunch seemed a little silly, but he supposed it could be a fun thing to do at some point because everything was fun with Roman. He had made fun of it but suddenly he was thinking of actually doing it at some point. But maybe not at a fancy place.

“Matthew if you kill him you are never allowed to come over and pet Malfoy again and you’ll have to help me through the grieving process which will be annoying as fuck,” Samuel warned Matthew and wrapped his arms protectively around Roman, “besides you’d have to get through me first and I am a gazillion times stronger than you,”

“Yeah but like you wouldn’t hurt someone,” Matthew insisted and held Elissa close, “So it’s okay, I will defend you from Roman’s evil,”

His voice was clearly less dramatic than Elissa's, it was Matthew after all, but he did play along and that was pretty cute.

“Maybe me being too scared to beat people up is just a façade, maybe I beat people up every day in secret, you don’t know me,”
 
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"I can indeed testify to these violent claims," Roman informed Matthew and Elissa matter-of-factly from his place in Samuel's arms. "He's beaten up three children today alone."

Elissa gasped dramatically again and hid her face in Matthew's shoulder. "Samuel is a monster," she said meekly.

Malfoy leaped onto the couch and situated himself in Roman's lap. Roman looked up at Matthew victoriously, since he knew he liked the cat, which was fair enough. Malfoy was absolutely delightful.

"Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I win."
 
Matthew accepted his defeat when Malfoy decided he wanted to be in Roman's lap, or well he said "well he is your owner," which Samuel decided was Matthew language for defeat. But he didn't seem at all agitated by Roman's teasing. Elissa was definitely good for him, which showed the following days as well because whenever they'd hang out between lectures at university he was in a good mood and a little more animated than usual.

Today Samuel had no lectures though, but since Roman was working an actual job now he had more regular hours and rather than spending the day alone Samuel had decided to go visit Roman at work around lunch time.

In actuality he didn't mind being home alone all that much it was a little boring, but he had the pets to keep him company and he didn't have a cute boyfriend there to distract him. Today however he had been laying in bed doing homework one one of the doors had blown shit with a loud bang due to a window in the room being open and for a moment Samuel had gotten a really overwhelming feeling of being back in his childhood bedroom, being terrified as he heard his dad violently shut a door out of anger on his way up to Samuel's room. Once he had snapped out of it, blaming it on the poor quality of sleep he had gotten lately, he had checked to make sure no animals got hurt and then decided he was to on edge to be without Roman.

Once at the parlor he was recognized and welcomed immediately, they were all friendly people and seemed to have gotten used to Samuel visiting at random times of the day. He was however also told that Roman was busy tattooing at the moment and that it was up to the client if he could stay, they also told him he was free the hang out in the break room if he wasn't.

"Hey, am I coming in don't get startled or something," Samuel said softly as he walked into the room, not wanting the be the cause of a messed up tattoo. He stopped himself from walking in further when he saw the scene before him. Roman was tattooing a girl around their age, she seemed pretty, or her body at least and with ashy brown hair tied up neatly in a bun on the top of her head. This wasn't all that weird though, it was the placement of the tattoo, a floral piece that made Samuel's face flush and started filling him up with conflicted feelings. The lower back. And she was shirtless for easy access, only wearing a black bra on her upper body.

"Oh uh sorry, I can leave?" Samuel wasn't sure if the girl would want random strangers walking in and out while half naked. She didn't move though, probably not wanting to mess the tattoo up by turning to look at who it was bartering in.

"Huh? What's going on?" She said in a peppy happy voice, indicating that she probably didn't care at all.
 
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Roman decided that Matthew and Elissa were really good for each other -- Elissa was in very bright spirits whenever he spoke to her and he could only attribute that to her new boyfriend. He was very happy for the both of them.

Now, he was sitting in his studio in the tattoo parlour with a girl laying on the seat that had turned into a table. She had requested a lower back tattoo -- Roman didn't call it a tramp stamp because it was actually pretty classy and he liked it a lot. He looked up when his boyfriend entered and gave him a big smile.

"No, it's fine, you can stay," he said, standing up for a moment. He had been working for a solid two hours anyway, so he turned to his client. "Okay, you can sit up for a bit and we'll take a little break."

Roman turned off the machine, took off his gloves and crossed to his boyfriend. He kissed him on the cheek, went to the mini fridge he kept in the room and pulled out three Cokes, one for each of them. "This is Samuel, my boyfriend," he explained to his client.

It occurred to Roman that Samuel would probably have an issue with the placement of the girl's tattoo. It wasn't like he was tattooing any obscene area of her body or anything, but still, it wasn't like it was her ankle or arm or anything. It was still a somewhat intimate area.
 
"Okay, tell me when you want me to leave," Samuel said to the girl and opened the coke, deciding he could use some sugar because he was pretty tired. He didn't actually want to leave though, sometime about the placement of the tattoo and Roman being close to another person like that made him want to stay. Samuel knew that was the jealous part of him, but he was tired and didn't have the will power to push it down as much as he usually did.

"Oh that's fine, I like getting to know new people," Samuel didn't frown outwardly but inwardly he did because she was nice, then he couldn't be mad about her, "so you two are dating? You seem like an odd couple, not in a negative way though,"

"Yeah we get that," Samuel sailed, trying to make pleasant conversation and not be an asshole simply because his boyfriend had to touch her for work, "we've been dating for three years though, so,"

Samuel knew that part wasn't really necessary, it was just him making a point that they were dating despite the girl not showing interest in him. Hopefully it wouldn't annoy Roman to much.

"Ooh that must be nice, I wish I could find someone like that, but I suppose just dating and meeting new people is fun too"
 
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Roman could tell Samuel was slightly jealous. He knew his boyfriend far too well for him to be able to hide such feelings at this time. But he also knew that Samuel didn't mean to feel this way. He didn't mean to be jealous, it was just something he did sometimes. So Roman wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.

Besides, Samuel seemed a little ... off. So, Roman wouldn't push him.

"Well, when you find the right person, make sure to never let them go," Roman told the girl before giving Samuel a sweet smile and kissing him on the top of the head again. Then, he went and put his gloves back on and sat down again.

"Are you ready to keep going?" he asked her pleasantly, turning the machine on and picking up his needle.
 
"Yeah, sure!" The girl chirped happily, "Oh right, I'm Sara by the way, sorry! I didn't mean to be rude, my friends tell me I'm a little ditzy,"

She laughed and laid down again, she mostly just seemed happy and cheerful.

"Nah, I didn't ask, so it's my fault,"
Samuel smiled and found himself a chair to sit down, for a moment he wished he had stayed at home so he could stay in bed and maybe nap a little but the jealous part of him refused to go back home because now he needed to make sure nothing happened. Only he already knew nothing would happen, and he was slowly getting a little frustrated with himself, "that's my aunt's name too,"

The girl smiled back at him as response and braced herself to get tattooed again.

"How long will it take?" Samuel said in reference to the tattoo, not sure if he asked because he was curious or wanted the tattooing to stop because as soon as Roman was back to being close to her the jealousy Samuel was too tired to push back became a little worse.
 
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Samuel was trying, and that meant a lot to Roman.

"Probably a couple of hours," Roman replied, dipping his tattoo needle into a tub of ink. "It's about half done."

Roman took another sip of Coke, before he turned back to the girl in front of him and proceeded with the tattoo. He pressed the needle to her skin and continued with his work.

Tattooing was even more enjoyable than he had originally thought it would. He knew he would love it when he took it up as a career, but this was something else. Every piece of art he created, he poured his soul and his talent into it. He loved being able to mark his clients' skin with the art they desired. Even if he would never be able to get the large tattoos he desired -- he knew he'd be able to get small ones, but nothing larger than a playing card -- he loved being able to provide them for other people.

"It's not hurting you too much, is it?" he asked Sara.
 
Samuel nodded, accepting the fact that he'd be there for a while. Usually watching Roman create art wasn't something that would bore him, and it probably wouldn't now either but it seemed like the best way to quench the jealousy was to avoid looking to much at what was happening. At least he felt safe when he was with Roman, so it beat being home alone.

"No it's actually a lot better than I thought it would be," Sara said, voice as upbeat as ever, despite it probably hurting at least enough to be bothersome, "I have one behind my ear kind off, its tiny but it hurt,"

Samuel took a sip of the coke, it was making him feel a little better, coke always reminded him of Roman, when he was in the same room as him was no exception.

"What's it of?" Samuel really was trying, it was harder today than usual, but it was for Roman. And a little for himself, he didn't think he could deal with Roman being annoyed with him today.

"Come check?" Sara suggested but Samuel shook his head.

"No that's okay," it came out a little more standoffish than he had wanted it to.

"Oh okay," She sounded a tad confuse but was back to being happy the next second, "well it's of a couple of dandelion seeds, nothing too creative and it doesn't really mean anything, but it's cute,"