[Samuel x Roman]

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"It's cute that you think we're only taking one picture to make them jealous," Roman said affectionately as he and his husband walked down the streets of Barcelona.

Today, Roman wore no makeup but his usual black eyeliner and highlighter. He did, however, wear his favourite cherry blossom jacket, along with a pastel pink T-shirt and black skinny jeans. While Samuel had made the decision to spare his poor feet the pain of wearing Converse again, Roman had made the decision that beauty was pain and had shoved his feet into a pair of simple black Converse to compliment the rest of his outfit.

They arrived at the Picasso museum and Roman could practically hear the very forced shrug Matthew would give when they later asked him how jealous he was. The building was gorgeous, of course, but that was not surprising. Roman decided that he and his husband should get a picture in front of the building, so he poked Samuel on the neck to signal his attention.

"Ask someone if they can take the picture," he requested, because he couldn't speak Spanish.
 
Samuel felt himself shift uncomfortably at Roman's request, approaching someone working in a store or a restaurant or the hotel was one thing, but doing so to an average person on the street was another. Samuel didn't like the idea of bothering someone because that was what he felt like he did if he ever had to do that. But it was for a picture of them together, something Samuel would want even if they hadn't intended to send the picture to Matthew and Elissa.

So, after a moment of hesitation Samuel spotted three or so girl that were walking together and didn't seem to be in a hurry, thus hopefully the request wouldn't mess up their schedule or whatever it was Samuel was afraid of, he wasn't really sure himself.

"Excuse me?" He got the attention of the girls, they were probably a good couple of years younger and looked a tad surprised to have this random man approach them, "Hello, would you maybe, uh, take a photo or two of me and my husband in front of the museum?" Samuel specifically chose the word husband to make sure they knew he wasn't some creep trying to hit on them and the girls seemed a little more relaxed. The fact that Samuel had pointed out Roman probably helped as well, girls tended to think Roman was very good looking.

"Of course!" One of the girls said, Samuel thanked her and pulled up his phone camera before heading over to stand on pose next to his husband. And by pose, he meant stand awkwardly and stiffly because he never knew how to act in pictures.
 
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Roman would not have asked Samuel to approach a stranger if he had not known that Samuel could do it. Samuel got nervous, sure, but he was still a strong person and Roman believed in him. And besides, he would be here to swoop in and save Samuel if anything went awry.

Roman posed for the photo by draping one arm around Samuel's shoulders and smiling at the camera. The other girls that had accompanied the impromptu photographer practically swooned when he did so, but that was expected so Roman remained unperturbed.

Once the photo had been taken, Roman took Samuel's hand, approached the girl, glanced at the image and smiled. They looked good and the sign for the museum was in plain view, meaning it would be very obvious where they were when they sent the image to Matthew and Elissa.

Good. That was what they had wanted.

"Gracias," he said to the girl with a bright and lovely smile, using the little Spanish he actually knew.
 
The girl took the picture without any problems while the other girls gawked at Roman, Samuel tried his best to smile and look normal in the picture and soon the slightly torturous moment was over.

"Oh it was no problem at all," The girl giggled as she handed back the phone, thinking they both spoke Spanish since Roman had used the language too, she batted her eyelashes a little but after a second or two of longingly looking at Roman her and the other girls continued on their way, all while giggling somewhat loudly. Samuel let out a quiet chuckle, the girls went in the category of too young to be jealous of, they had probably been around eighteen, so Samuel didn't mind too much. He was honestly mostly just proud of himself for talking to a complete stranger like that.

"She said it was no problem," Samuel translated for his husband as he looked over the picture, Roman looked stunning and natural in front of the camera, as usual, Samuel looked a little stiff, but thanks to Roman having put his arm around him Samuel had relaxed a little and thus looked a little more normal, "It turned out pretty well, let's go inside and take some more,"

And so they went inside the museum, Samuel paid the entrance fee for them, once again, it was easier to talk to someone if he knew they were doing their job so Samuel was fairly okay with that and didn't kick up a fuss. And so, they were inside the museum, "You know what we should do? We should find some app and make some cheesy slideshow with all the pictures wanna send to them, then Matthew will hate us even more,"
 
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"Ohmygod yes, and we should have some snobby Mozart song playing because you know he'll only ever associate it with that slideshow for the rest of time," Roman said excitedly. He couldn't tell if he was most excited about actually seeing the cool artwork of the museum, or of making Matthew jealous. It was probably the latter because even if they were friends now, they were still rather petty around one another. But that was to be expected.

"I think Picasso was on meth," Roman said as he looked around and viewed the odd, surrealist paintings that the museum was dedicated to. Of course, they were lovely and Roman was in awe of the skill and technique put into the pieces of art that he was surrounded by -- in fact, his inner artist was coming to the surface and his thoughts were almost entirely consumed by analysis of the lines and contours and shapes. But they were objectively pretty weird.

"Did they even have meth back then? I don't know. Did you know that Hitler was addicted to methamphetamines?" Roman chattered excitedly as he took pictures of several pieces of work. They were for him, though, and also for his Instagram that needed a healthy dose of culture. "And he got like all the Nazis on drugs as well? What a great dude. Hey do you think they have Guernica here? That's one of my favourite Picasso pieces and I know for a fact it's Elissa's favourite as well."
 
Samuel laughed a little at Romans chattering, his ADHD was showing, but he was also very adorable, and Samuel loved his excitement about being surrounded by art a lot.

He decided to answer Roman's questions in reverse, "I have no idea if they have it here but if it's Elissa's favourite we need to see if it is so we can rub it in her face. I don't care if Hitler was on meth, no amount of meth excuses that kind of mass murder, and no Picasso was probably not on meth because he lived until he was ninety, he died in the seventies, and yes. They had meth in the seventies or else Hitler wouldn't have been able to use it."

Samuel didn't say everything as fast as Roman did and did his best to look around to see if they could find some little brochure or map or something of the museum so they could find the pieces they wanted to see the most, after a while he found one on a table, it was basically just a list of which pieces were in what rooms with some of Picasso's art printed on the front of the paper. Samuel grabbed one in the little pile and handed it to Roman, "See if you can find the one you wanted to see here? And then we'll get to it when we do, and in the meantime, I can take some pictures of you looking cool with the art to make Mathew super jelly,"

Samuel felt like it probably was a little extra annoying for Matthew if it was Roman in the pictures too. They had both long since gotten over the unpleasantries that had happened when they first met, but they seemed to have a pretty friendly rivalry now at least. A friendly rivalry that was a little less friendly than the one Roman had with Evan though.
 
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"Ooooooooooooooooooh, we have been blessed by the gods of organisation and guidance," Roman chirped, taking the brochure and flipping through it until he found the painting he had been talking about. "Okay, it's a few floors up, coolio, we'll make our way up to it." Roman closed and pocketed the brochure before turning to the first painting, jumping to stand beside it and posing with a big smile for his boyfriend. "Okay, I'm channeling my inner Naomi Campbell. Go crazy."

They made their way up the first few floors, Roman fangirling over the amazing art and taking pictures with half of the paintings, also dragging Samuel into a few of them. He admired Picasso a lot, even if surrealism wasn't his style, the man was still an icon and therefore one to be respected.

They reached the fourth floor and Roman's eyes immediately fell on Guernica, the famed oil painting he had been most excited to see. It probably didn't look that much different to all the other paintings to an outsider, but to Roman, a genuine fan of art, it looked amazing and unique and he loved it a lot.

After admiring it for a few moments, Roman stood beside the artwork and smiled at Samuel. "Okay, go."
 
Samuel couldn't really say he understood this kind of art, he supposed that maybe was part of the point of it. But he much favoured the realistic stuff Roman made. But after dating an artist for as long as he had he could actually see the raw talent behind the brushstrokes, probably not as well as Roman could, but he found himself at least appreciate it all a little better thanks to seeing Roman paint as much as he did.

They made their way around the first couple of floors, Samuel found himself really enjoying taking pictures of Roman with all the paintings and accepted being dragged into some of them himself. And soon enough they got to what seemed to be the main attraction for Roman. Samuel didn't really know what was so special about it but he could t least guess that the colours, or the lack of them were part of what Roman liked about it.

He was happy to take yet another picture of Roman thought and when he stood with the painting Samuel decided to take a couple, "Hey I'm taking like ten so we have options on what to send to Elissa and Matthew," he said, this would obviously be one of the main things to make their friends jealous.

Once the pictures were taken, Samuel walked up to Roman and showed him the screen, "so, I've been thinking," Samuel said absentmindedly as he scrolled through the pictures so Roman could make sure he looked good enough in them, of course, he looked perfect in all, but still, "I think I wanna get a camera when we get home? A proper one. I always used to love looking through all the pictures mum took as a kid, even the ones from before she got me, and like, I think it could be fun to start making photo albums and stuff, to remember all the good times and to show our kids in like ten years, you know,"

Samuel obviously wasn't very artsy, that was no secret, and that was clearly not the motivation for his sudden interest in taking photos. He had been thinking a little since the day before though, and really he thought it was a pretty good idea, he didn't particularly like being photographed, so maybe he could be behind the camera instead.
 
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Roman tore his eyes away from the artwork to look at his husband as he thought about the suggestion being made. "Ooh, I think that's a great idea," he said excitedly. They usually just took pictures on their phones of special occasions, but there was something different when it came to actually using a camera and printing out images. There was a charm to it, an alluring feeling that came with the process.

And Roman really liked the idea of creating photo albums to show their kids in the future.

"When we get home we'll go camera shopping and pick out the best one and it will be great," he said, kissing his lovely Samuel on the top of the head. Money obviously wasn't an issue for the Hemlock-Ortegas, what with Roman's generous salary and Samuel's steady teaching job. They were in a very good financial situation and Roman was thankful for that, because it meant they never had to worry about things like bills and rent and budgeting, though Roman wasn't an idiot and refrained from spending large amounts of money too often.

"Well, I think this is the last floor," Roman said with a wistful sigh. He stood behind Samuel, wrapped his arms around the other man and leaned his chin onto the top of his head. "Do you think we have enough material to make Matthew have an aneurysm?"
 
"Yeah I think that's plenty," Samuel chuckled and leaned back a little while pretending to look at some of the art but in reality, he was just taking a moment to enjoy the position they were in. Samuel Always loved it when Roman wrapped himself around him from behind like that. He was so tall Samuel felt like he was just completely surrounded by Roman, it was a fantastic feeling.

After a minute or two Samuel decided he had had enough, or well he could never get enough of being hugged by Roman, but it was enough for being in public and he could get plenty of Roman hugs when they were back at the hotel, for now, they had the rest of the day to go about. So, Samuel turned around, took a small step back and grabbed both of Roman's hand's in his, "So if we've seen it all it might be time for lunch, yeah?"

And with that, they headed back out, after doing a second stop by their favourite pieces on the way back of course. They walked for a while, now with the goal of finding someplace to eat lunch, it was a little warmer out that day and since it was lunchtime the sun was high in the sky, it was hitting Samuel's dark brown hair and the black sleeves of his jacket, making him feel quite warm and cosy. He could definitely go for eating outside.

After not too much walking, Samuel spotted the perfect place, It was a cute little restaurant, the prices weren't too high, the prices were never really a problem for them but Samuel never saw a point in wasting money either, there were plenty of little tables outside as well as inside and across the street there were a couple of buskers singing some indie sounding music in British accents. The restaurant was Italian though, but they had had plenty of Spanish foods already so Samuel didn't mind.

"Hey, let's eat here?" Samuel suggested sweetly, and then added a little more mischievously, "And let's sit outside, your pale ass could use some sun," He pulled Roman down to kiss his cheek to compensate for the little joke on his husbands expense and led him over to a table that had a good view of the buskers across the street, they were quite good so why not listen to them, "I'm just gonna head in to the bathroom real quick, if anyone comes to take our orders I want pizza, any is fine, as long as it isn't a margehrita,"

In contrast to his boyfriend Samuel wasn't very picky with what he ate at all, of course, he watched what he ate more and would frequently choose healthier options, but Roman could essentially pick whatever for him and he wouldn't complain. So he made sure the menu had an English translation so Roman wouldn't have any problems ordering, before kissing his husband's cheek again and heading into the restaurant to find a bathroom.
 
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Roman definitely decided to take advantage of being left alone with the menu. When the waitress came to take his order, he selected a small margherita pizza, a serving of ravioli and one of lasange for himself, and a large supreme pizza for Samuel. He also ordered two loaves of garlic bread, a large Coke and a vanilla milkshake, mineral water for Samuel and told the waitress that they would definitely be ordering dessert. The poor girl looked pretty shocked and Roman tipped her for her trouble.

Once she left, Roman took Samuel's phone off the table, inputted the passcode and sent himself all the images of the art gallery so he could collate them into a slideshow. Then, he picked up his own phone and perused the app store for an app they could use to make the slideshow itself. Once he found one, he downloaded it, and then went to iTunes to find a piece of classical music to use just to spite Matthew.

He picked out Mozart's Lacrimosa and proceeded to begin the construction of the slideshow once he did so. He had just imported all of the images and music when Samuel came back, so he saved the draft and looked up at his husband with a cute, innocent expression on his face.

"I promise I didn't order the whole menu," Roman said sweetly, clearly trying to cover up the fact that he had taken advantage of being left alone and ordered a lot more than Samuel would have allowed.
 
Samuel made sure to hurry his quick bathroom break, mostly because he wanted to get back to Roman and spend as much time as him as possible. The inside of the restaurant was quite nice too. On his way back out he passed a slightly confused looking waitress coming from the outside and Samuel had an inkling Roman might have something to do with that. Even if she knew they were two people Roman still ordered too much to be logical.

"Somehow I do not believe you," Samuel laughed. He would not put it past his husband to have ordered way too much while he was gone. Roman was a good actor and therefore a good liar, but Samuel knew Roman, "I'm not going to complain because you'll get busted the moment the food comes in anyways… And because I know you'll eat it all,"

The buskers across the street had begun to sing Wonderwall, a pretty cliched choice at this point but it was still good and enjoyable. He leaned his head against his hand and looked over at them for a moment and then glanced back at Roman, "They're pretty good, I feel like knowing how good you are, makes everyone pale in comparison though,"
 
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Roman blew a little kiss to his husband and turned to glance at the buskers. They were indeed pretty good, they had nice voices and obvious musical talent. Roman was evidently very good at music, and therefore knew the type of skill required to be able to perform like that. So, he made sure to clap for them when they concluded the song.

"Yeah, they're actually quite decent," Roman agreed, turning back to his husband. The waitress brought out Samuel's mineral water, along with Roman's two large drinks and the two loaves of garlic bread -- the first piece of evidence to suggest that he had ordered way too much food.

Roman did not address the subject and instead just tore off a few pieces of garlic bread and began to munch on one. "I wonder what Lady and Malfoy and Lola are doing right now," he pondered, staring off into the distance whimsically as if he could peer across the ocean and scope out their pets.
 
Samuel couldn't keep the amused smile off his face as the waitress came out with three drinks and two loafs of garlic bread. Roman was totally busted but Samuel did not say anything yet, he just sipped a little of his mineral water and thought about their pets, since Roman just brought them up.

"Probably being adorable," Samuel sighed and tore of a piece of garlic bread for himself, at least garlic bread was good, "I miss them so much, I can't wait to like curl up with a book with one of them in my lap, it's like the best thing ever, especially since it's gonna start to get colder when we're coming back,"

That was true, by the time they came home it'd be April and before they knew it winter. Of course, winter meant drinking loads of hot chocolate or coffee, and cuddling under the blankets without dying from the heat and plenty of warm baths with Roman, so he couldn't complain too much, he just preferred sunshine over a cloudy sky.

"Don't tell him I told you, but Evan totally sent me a snap about how Malfoy already had scratched him like twice the other night, he has the scratches to show for it and everything," Samuel laughed, knowing too well that Roman definitely would not let it slide, "He's not as good with cats as he is with kids,"
 
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Roman grinned triumphantly once Samuel relayed the story of Evan getting scratched by Malfoy. "I have never been more proud of my cat son," Roman said happy, taking a sip of his vanilla milkshake and then, once he had rinsed his mouth with the water, did the same to his Coke. He wasn't going to comment on the fact that he had two drinks. He didn't really think he needed to say anything, Samuel wasn't surprised at all.

After a little while longer, their main courses came and Roman was starving by that point in time. The waitress brought out their pizzas so at first it looked like Roman had ordered a normal amount of food, but then she brought out the two plates of lasange and ravioli and it turned out that of course, Roman had bought enough to feed a small family. The poor waitress also brought out several sets of cutlery, as if she thought that more people would be coming to eat all that pasta.

Roman thanked her, then turned to his meal and proceeded to shake salt and pepper over his two dishes, before digging into the margherita pizza so the two pastas could cool down a little.

"See, I told you I didn't order the whole menu," he said, already having finished his first slice of pizza. He worked on assigning the sets of cutlery to his three dishes so they didn't get mixed up and therefore fuck up the flavours, and then put garlic salt all over everything.
 
Soon the food came in and Samuel reminded himself to not let Roman order by himself ever again, because holy shit he had actually ordered three plates of food for himself. He had also managed to order a very good looking pizza for Samuel, but that was beside the point.

"Roman that is not the point and you know it," Samuel groaned. He wasn't sounding irritated though, he had no reason to be. He knew Roman didn't just order a bunch of food without eating it, but it was still a ridiculous amount and Samuel could no longer not complain a little about it, "I almost want to put a slice of pizza on that ravioli so you won't eat it, it should be illegal to eat that much,"

Roman's huge appetite would forever be a mystery, back in high school and a couple of years past it Roman was still growing so it was kind of understandable, but he had since stopped growing, and gained a couple of kilos to a more healthy weight but he still had that crazy metabolism he had always had. It was astonishing how he ate as much as an athlete yet never even did any exercise.

"Like, I know you can eat it, but I don't believe for a second that it can be healthy to eat three portions of food," Samuel chuckled a little as he said it, it was still said with nothing but love, and he knew Roman never really cared about what was and what wasn't healthy, "If you throw up due to overeating later I'm not helping you," That was a blatant lie, but Samuel doubted it would happen anyways, he had seen Roman eat this much before without any problem, it was like he was an actual human carbage can, but a picky one.
 
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"Samuel, I'm starving, I haven't eaten in hours," Roman whined. It was technically true — they had had breakfast a whole three hours ago, a record time for Roman. "And besides I couldn't choose between the lasagne or the ravioli so I decided to get both. And you still love me so it's not like there are consequences for my actions."

Roman licked his lips, smirked and then took a big bite of his ravioli as if to rub it in his husband's face. They both knew Roman would have no trouble with eating the food, but still, Roman liked to tease Samuel every now and then and they were married so Samuel clearly didn't mind it too much.

In not too long at all, Roman had inhaled three quarters of his ravioli and a few bites of his lasagne, as well as half of the small Margherita pizza. He looked up at Samuel with another little smirk.

"So after this I'm thinking we get some ice cream to share," he suggested. "Because I can tell I'm still going to be starving. Though the flavours won't mix, of course, that would be a tragedy. A Greek tragedy, probably. Do the Greeks make ice cream?"
 
By the time Samuel was about halfway done with his Pizza, and not even that honestly, Roman had consumed two entire plates and some, of food. Samuel wasn't surprised and just responded to his husband's smirk with a gentle chuckle and ignore the fact that he just said he'd have room for more after all of this food.

"I mean there's Greek Yoghurt Ice cream I think?" Samuel said as he cut up another slice of his pizza, he wasn't the kind of person to eat his food very quickly, he had always been a pretty calm person and food was no exception. It was yet another example of how different he and Roman were from each other, "And back in Ancient Greece they ate snow flavoured with honey and fruit and stuff, I guess that's not really ice cream though, since it isn't milk based,"

Samuel just easily threw out a random historical fact on the topic, that was what Roman got by bringing up Greek Tragedies it got him thinking about ancient Greece. In that moment Samuel realised he was a total fucking nerd so he decided to continue on the topic of ice cream instead.

"We can just get one flavour, though, I am a good husband and won't force you to even be scared of the ice creams mixing," Samuel said and reached over the table to boop Roman's nose sweetly, "As long as we get some fun flavour, like I'm feeling something fruity? Could we get that?"
 
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Roman leaned into the boop and closed his eyes happily. He loved and accepted any and all affection from his amazing husband, and that small touch to the nose was no exception. Roman caught Samuel's hand before he could pull it back and kissed the back of it in an equally sweet action. Then he released his husband and turned back to his food.

"Ooooooooooh, I think I saw raspberry sorbet on the menu?" Roman said as he speared his last few ravioli into his fork. One dish down, two to go. "And I know that sorbet technically isn't ice cream but let's be real, it's way better and is definitely the king of frozen desserts." Roman shrugged and popped the ravioli into his mouth, before putting the ravioli-assigned cutlery onto the dish and setting it aside, so he could proceed with his lasagne and his pizza.

"Also," Roman said once he had swallowed and proceeded with cutting up his lasange into more manageable pieces, "I propose that we get a sorbet maker or an ice cream churned when we get home, because Elissa swears that homemade ice cream is better than store-bought ice cream and she has really nice hair so of course we have to listen to her."
 
"yes, Elissa, with her beautiful hair is a goddess and us mere average haired peasants must listen to her and her opinion on store-bought versus homemade ice cream," Samuel joked, "Actually, your hair is really pretty too. And soft. I love your hair,"

Samuel loved every single part of Roman, inside and out. He really did love Roman's hair a lot though. He loved running his fingers through it and knowing how much Roman loved it, he loved kissing it and he loved burying his face in it when he held him. It was lovely and had nothing to do with ice cream, Samuel had just not been able to stop himself from letting out the compliments.

"I'm all for getting one though, homemade ice cream is the best, Aunt Sara always used to make ice cream when we came visiting in the summer, it was always really nice, but she just froze it in a bowl and took it out to stir every hour or so, I think, but it's probably easier with proper equipment," Samuel took a bite of pizza and took the moment to reflect a little on the nice memories with his aunt and cousins as he chewed. He also thought for a moment about the fact that his aunt was a good baker. And his mother was very good at making food, and that a lot of people in his family actually were, yet he had somehow ended up being absolute garbage at it. He was pretty sure it was in part due to the reinforced gender roles he had grown up with, but honestly, he couldn't even blame that fully, he was simply too bad at it. Luckily Roman would be able to make ice cream for them, he was one of the best cooks Samuel knew, "She used to make us frozen lemonade popsicles too, we should make that next summer, but with cola, or something,"
 
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