I Didn't Want You Hurt

Waves crashed against the rocks, and left a brief coating for the sand to absorb. They still coated the sand as the mostly-unconscious Prince was pressed against it. It took a while, but he sat up and grabbed his head before finally opening his eyes. He looked around the area for some time without any sound coming out of his mouth. He knew he was on the shore, but he didn't exactly know how he made it there. The last thing he remembered was that he was swimming around exploring the coral reefs in the Imagination, and some eels thought it would be a good idea to attack him the one time he decided against bringing his sword. The attacks caught him off guard enough for him to not focus on breathing anymore and everything went dark for him.

Once Roman left Memory Lane, he came to the conclusion that he must've been rescued by someone. He looked around for any sign of another person being at the shore as of recent until his eyes landed on a glass bottle with a rolled up piece of paper in it. He walked over to open the bottle and poured the paper out of it. He opened the paper and found a message that said 'Just because I produce fabrications and nightmares doesn't mean I want you to get hurt. Please be more careful'.

'Fabrications and nightmares...'

Roman could tell that Deceit was the one that left the note. However, it meant that he was the one that rescued Roman, then why would he do such a thing? Roman casually walked back home with the note still in hand and sat on his bed to think over everything.

Roman had always had daydreams of rescuing or being rescued by a prince of his own, and now that it has happened, albeit by the Prince of Deception, he wasn't sure what to do, or what to say if he were to confront him. Deceit has proven to do more than just lie before, and has been shown to want what's best for Thomas and his desires. Roman was willing to admit that, without the context of the courtroom, he had fun bantering and flirting with Deceit (plus, the snake man looked good in a suit). Even though Virgil has felt uneasy about the guy, Roman was still genuinely curious about Deceit.

Not only that, but if he wanted... something with Deceit, he didn't want to give the impression that he's hypothetically only in love with what he did, as opposed to who Deceit is. He doesn't want to hurt the mostly-dark side since nobody deserves a love that isn't genuine.

After staring at the note for a longer while, he held it in his hand as he walked over to Deceit's room. Roman took a deep breath, but, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find himself able to imagine how the conversation might go. He knocked on the door and Deceit silently opened the door.

"Oh, Roman. I figured I'd see you here," Deceit claimed while both of his eyes were as yellow as his gloves.

"For the sake of privacy, do you mind if we talk behind a closed door?" Roman asked.

Deceit thought about it for a while and got out of the way so Roman could get inside. The Prince walked inside slowly and Deceit closed the door behind him.

"So, what brings you here?" Deceit asked.

Roman showed the note to Deceit and the snake man's eyes widened.

"Um... you're not disappointed, are you?" he nervously asked without needing to see what the note said.

"Honestly, I'm not disappointed. I just need to know what you were doing in the sea and why."

The two looked down with an uncomfortable silence due to not knowing how to continue the conversation. When they both looked up at each other, Deceit's eyes turned brown to match his host's eyes.

"Logan was reading out loud about water snakes and, well, since I'm me, I figured I'd explore them and then some without anyone else being around, which would've been a good idea since I don't like being shirtless around other people."

"So, what happened when you saw me?"

Deceit took a deep breath and lifted part of his shirt to reveal a burn mark on his human flesh. Roman was shocked that Deceit got hurt, and was still willing to save him.

"I'd hate to lose you, Roman. I didn't expect you to want to speak to me or see me, but I wanted to do something to at least make sure you were safe."

"As for the message in the bottle?"

"Well, I thought you wouldn't want to speak to me, so I wanted to leave something that revealed what I was thinking."

Deceit looked at Roman and kept it hidden that he was worried about being shunned by Roman. He approached the door to open it for Roman before he felt his hand being pulled back.

"You were my knight, Deceit," Roman remarked as if confirming it to both of them.

"I mean... by media logic, I guess you can put it that way. But, you don't have to-"

"No, I want to if you do as well. First, I suggest we at least get to know each other, and see where things go from there, kinda like what Robert described to Giselle."

Deceit felt his human skin blushing as he gave a small smile to the man still holding his hand.

"Truth be told, that would sound nice."

The two gently hugged and felt eager at the thought of being... something. They didn't know what they'd be, but they knew they'd be something.