AU Connoisseur

As he got older and more in-tuned with his abilities, he learned that the rain could be a comfort. Especially after meeting Virgil.

Virgil, who was alluring enough to draw even Roman out into the rain to see him…and Roman was apparently the only one who could see him.

Virgil had seemed surprised to see Varshi like Roman, and Roman was perplexed by how solid he was. It was no wonder the rain ran right off of him, despite the presence of magic surrounding him.

Virgil who invited Ro to see more of his world.

They couldn’t talk at first— Roman didn’t know how to the same way Virgil and people like Virgil did, but he did like to listen to Virgil do so. Virgil’s voice was soothing and steady…the syllables and sounds were strange and different from a spirit of the water like himself.

Virgil’s sound was smooth and unhurried like the underground winds in deep caves. He had different sound waves that reverberated through Roman pleasantly, more intensely than the steady hum and patter of his father in their bubble.

Roman sat with him on the back tailgate of what Virgil said was his “station wagon”. He called it the old Misery Machine (and Missy…or Miser). When Roman understood what that meant and was concerned, though, Virgil assured him it was just a reference to something he liked. Roman had to wonder why until Virgil played a new song for him, and then he understood.

He eventually was able to tell Roman more about it: he’d saved up to trade for it with the help of his own sibling, Jay. Roman thought it would be nice to introduce his siblings to Virgil one day. They’d definitely get along with him.

.

.

.

The early puddles always seemed to guide Roman right to Virgil.

It was always raining when he went there, too, which was what connected their realms, he thought. After the first two times, Virgil was always waiting for him, with a new strange beautiful sound to play for him. Sometimes he brought food, but they quickly learned Roman couldn’t actually consume it. That was fine with him. He still liked to sit with Virgil and play with the rain as Virgil sheltered beside him under the back covering of Missy.

Roman liked when Virgil’s wheel home moved while he was visiting. Roman sat in the seat across from him and just admired the passing landscape with the window down. Fields of spikey blaze bushes that looked like they were burning brightly, shimmering in the light despite the gentle rainfall forecasted. Stocky red vines as big as trees reaching up into the clouds with massive umbrella leaves. Weaving through mossy boulders that looked like they had been placed there by giants a millennia ago. Rolling fields of lavender bunches that stretched to the horizon and beyond it, probably.

Often following the fleeting rain to stay together just a little bit longer, until they reached the rain shadow of the mountains or the sea.

No matter how far they drove, they never met the end of the world. Roman’s own world felt so small now. Smaller than it had ever been, since prior, it had been all that existed in the limits of his mind. But here was so vast and beautiful. Roman marveled at it all, wishing they could stay for longer than they had.

He wanted to see all of it. He also never wanted to find the end of new places and people and sights. Every trip was uniquely memorable. He wanted to stay and see it all in wide-eyed wonder. He wanted to linger on the moments with Virgil, his growing affection uncontained nor quantifiable. He just knew it was at least as expansive as the world was, with all his memories.

Roman looked at it all with the window down to be part of it. He let the wind fly wildly across him, refreshing from all the stillness he was so used to at home. Freeing from always just looking out through a contorted view before now. He grinned.

Virgil didn’t seem to ever mind the rain sometimes getting in. Roman stuck his hand out to feel this world’s rain collect and pool around his hand like a glove. He smiled at the odd cool blob sticking to him, it reverberating the melodic sounds of the vehicle softly against him. It felt relaxing against his face and body, and Roman liked to be near it as it played, memorizing vibrations.

Usually Virgil’s humming matched the wagon’s and Roman liked to hear it even more. He tried to hum too, in his own way, and Virgil flashed a rare big smile that Roman wanted to keep seeing more. Especially directed at him.

He let Virgil feel the water pooling against his hand, and held Virgil’s hand experimentally. The water bent around it, then absorbed Virgil’s hand as it seemed determined to keep its blobby form, wiggling around their intertwined fingers. It eventually deformed and gave up, running down Virgil’s arm in a soaked mess on his sleeves. Roman tilted his head at his Virgil seemed surprised they could touch at all.

Virgil didn’t let go, though, and Roman appreciated the height that allowed him to lean in and rest his head on Virgil’s shoulder. It always left Virgil’s shirts and jackets damp, but once they’d parked on a mountain road overlooking a gently swirling green lake, he said he didn’t mind. That was right before he drew Roman into a kiss for the second time that morning.

Every time it rained, Roman went to find Virgil.

And more often than not, he was sitting in his metal wagon home, in a brand new miraculously beautiful place that somehow was still a part of the same world that Virgil traveled, collecting and archiving in sparkly transparent jars to sell at ‘markets’. Roman got to see the markets a few times over the years. They always amazed him, but he was disappointed by how he could not take the little treasures back home with him.

Virgil kept them for him in his van and eventually was able to create a gift for Roman that didn’t fall away or get damaged when he passed back through the puddles: a waterdrop necklace, imbued with Virgil’s magic. Each of the sparkling 8 beads showed a looping image of Virgil’s world that he had been to with Roman. Roman never took it off.

Perhaps Roman was just young and foolish and in love for the first time, but he’d never been more grateful to find someone to spend time with. Time no longer cooped up in his room, but instead sitting in the sunlight as the rain pattered on, pushing it once the sky cleared for just long enough to admire it and how Virgil’s smile seemed even more stunning under light of the moon and stars.

He didn’t like to leave Virgil, but they were from very different worlds. And never the less, he looked forward to seeing him again every time it rained. Roman would never stop visiting him, and had never missed a chance to see him. And Virgil never grew tired of him, or asked him to visit less. He seemed just as glad to see Roman…he wondered why Virgil was never with anyone, over the years. Not even his family when Roman was around.

But Virgil never talked about them except in vague, past tense terms, and Roman didn’t know how to ask even when he learned the words to. It at least always seemed fond when he spoke of them, if a little sad. Roman would sit closer in quiet support each time. Roman would be there for him as much as he could, then. Perhaps he could find a way to not be bound to the rain alone. It had to be possible.

But until they figured it out, Roman was happy to be a traveler between worlds, looking out for Virgil for them. Making sure he wasn’t always alone between his brief visits into the various beautiful and unusual cities of his world. And Roman was less lonely now too, as it was almost always raining somewhere else. He wondered if Virgil chased the rain, with how often Ro found him in it. He liked to think it was so they could see each other again, for as long as the water covered the lush and parched earth.

Roman loved the sound of a storm brewing, because now it meant he’d see his wonderful water witch again.

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A/N: “When it rains” by Paramore. Song about someone “confronting a person who has isolated themselves in depression and consistently avoids facing their problems or accepting support.”

I fought for my life on every little break I had from work to get this done 😂 i started a new job with 10 hour shifts last week, so I’ve been trying to get used to it. This is very stream-of-consciousness and probably reads like it…no beta because it was so last minute LOL. I will definitely look this over and edit it once I’m home to put on AO3, but here it is! The car name is also a Paramore Reference, vaguely (mixed with a play on “Mystery Machine”— you can guess who Virgil can thank there lmao).