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“And never fear, our midnight witcher, I've looked it up and these companies have their safety certifications so anything Thomas records with them will be safe. You could even ask the precautions ahead of filming to confirm so.” Roman ended his latest plans for a video with a flourish, looking around for their response.
Virgil had been wary but hearing that even without his and Logan's input he'd started to confirm the issues there might be was touching. “Thanks, Princey. You've already got a strong idea and I'm glad you've considered safety in it. That's great.” He didn't think the praise was anything special, but Roman completely lit up with it, a large smile spreading over his face. It felt real in a way Virgil only realised had been lacking in recent smiles upon seeing a genuine one.
That thought stuck with him, longer than the smaller smile that Roman kept as his idea started to be fully reviewed by everyone. He'd been the only one to praise Roman for the idea, rather than focusing on the idea itself or pointing out its flaws from the start, and Virgil couldn't remember that being a new thing.
It still stood out, just how much Roman had lit up at his meagre praise and how little anybody else directed praise towards the creative side. Remembering that Roman also made up Thomas's ego to some degree, Virgil decided that needed to change, even if he was the only one to start offering praise.
…
“That looks pretty cool. You making breakfast or working on your masterpiece?” Virgil muttered, looking over Roman's shoulder while he was making breakfast, or at least decorating plates ready to serve the food up.
“A meal tastes better if it looks better.” Roman quipped, but threw a grin over to him. “but thank you. I aim to impress.”
…
Virgil sighed after Thomas parroted Roman's words to smiles of his friends. “Good quick thinking there.”
Roman's replying smile was shallow, but thankfully still more genuine than any of his old smiles, “I'm just glad it worked. Janus's lines were digging a worse situation.”
“That's why we'll always need our Prince.”
…
Logan had started throwing curious glances to Virgil whenever he heard a passing compliment being said to Roman, and turning calculating gazes to Roman when the ideas shared were actually becoming better. It was possible that some praise or support with coming up with their video ideas would soon be shared by Logan and Virgil definitely hoped it would be so.
He'd seen Janus hold himself back from speaking multiple times. Everyone was fairly sure that any compliments from the deceitful side wouldn't be accepted yet. The times Janus had used them to manipulate Roman were too recent so Virgil was grateful that even if he understood why Virgil was complimenting more often, he wasn't trying to join in.
Patton however seemed to be just confused when he caught Virgil alone.
“You're being really sweet, complimenting Ro so much. I'm proud of you trying to get along with him better.” Patton had said, although questions were swimming through his eyes.
Virgil shrugged, hunching slightly into his hoodie. “We've been neglecting him. I'm just trying to make his smiles genuine again.”
“They've always been genuine. What do you mean?” His brow furrowed, glancing through to where Roman had popped up doing something with Logan while they spoke.
Virgil shook his head. “They weren't, just convincing fakes. Out of all of us, you know he's got the most acting ability and I'm fairly sure I hadn't seen a genuine smile for months before I first complimented him. It's time for Roman to be treated nicely, y'know.”
“Do you think his old pops could help with that?” Patton asked, glancing through, looking a little regretful at the distance everyone knew was between him and Roman currently.
“It can't hurt to try.” The response was the closest he could say without worrying about the advice being good or bad. Virgil didn't want to make the situation worse, but saying nothing would upset Patton more.
…
Perhaps the oddest thing Virgil noticed after starting to include compliments for Roman in their daily conversation was that Remus joined in, in his own way at least.
He'd come into the kitchen for some coffee late at night and saw Roman still up, practising some script in the living room and Remus fell in. “Loving that swamp you created, Pissy! Was Thomas rewatching Shrek when you made it?”
Virgil kept his snicker back. It definitely looked like Remus had been in a swamp from the amount of sludge he was dripping over the living room. This wasn't a conversation for him to join in with, but it was interesting to see the rejected brother joining in with building Roman up again.
“Oh! Thanks.” Roman blinked, dropping his script to turn and face Remus. “I think his friends had been talking about Princess Tiana and if she might actually include bugs or bug themed dishes on the menu of her restaurant when I made that place.”
“Did you give me alligators to avoid having to make hundreds of bugs then? You got them more ferocious and fun to wrestle with!” Remus almost pulled Roman into a hug or wrestling match if Roman hadn't been so quick to dodge away, smiling the entire time.
Virgil was going to walk through, let them know someone else had seem them getting along peacefully but paused when Roman scratched the back of his head. “Thanks, yeah. Want to help me fill it some more? I got called away before I could add more creatures than just alligators to it.”
He assumed the tackle and sinking out was Remus's way of accepting the invite. It seemed that way at least.