It was the middle of the night when Roman finally gathered enough courage to get up and talk to Virgil.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down ulteriorly, he relaxed his shoulders, rolling them back a few times, before starting to slowly make his way towards the camp site where everyone was sleeping.

He stopped near the campfire for a second, making sure the others were actually asleep before tip-toeing towards Virgil's curled up figure; the guy had his back to the royal, preventing him to see his sleeping face as he silently inched forward, failing to notice that the dragon sleeping behind him was carefully watching his every move with her slightly cracked open eyes.

Roman stopped right behind the man, taking one last deep breath as he looked over him; the dragon-witch looked so small in comparison to the big creature pressing up against  him with her body protectively wrapped around him.

The prince closed his eyes, collecting his thoughts as best as he could with the anxiety slowly rising up inside of him. He didn't want to fuck this up more than he already did.

"Virgil?" He called finally, his voice soft and whispered.

The man just laid there, not moving nor responding.

"Are you awake?" He tried again, cautiously taking a step forward just to freeze upon seeing Virgil turn towards him, two yellow snake like eyes staring back at him instead of the guy's usual brown-violet ones, a light violet hue surrounding his body.

"He is not. But I am, Bitch." 'Virgil' said, his voice underlined by a more feminine one. Roman shot a quick glance towards the dragon, immediately paling. Nyx was staring right at him, her face contorted into a silent growl and her eyes shining a bright violet as she used her energy and power to take over his soulmate voice.

"And I have a couple of words I would like to tell you: if you came here to make up stupid excuses for why you can't be with him just to fix your pathetic royal ego and make yourself feel less guilty, you can turn your ass back around right this moment.Don't even try, bitch." Nyx continued glaring daggers at the prince with both Virgil's eyes and her own, to which he just dropped his head in shame. " And to think I was even starting to like you when you told me to not be a bitch after Vee passed out from exhaustion, but now you're right back to square one." There was almost a mocking edge in her tone, that just contributed to make it colder, making the prince flinch with every word that was spoken next. "Because the truth is Roman, you are nothing but a little snobby bitch who can not handle having things not go the way you want them to go; you're just a spoiled little brat and I swear to the Goddess, if you're not here to apologize I will tear off your knee caps and use it to scoop out your smooth unwrinkled brain and slurp it up like jello, bitch, did you- Nyx what the fuck are you-" Virgil said finally waking up, rubbing his head sleepily in the spot where he could feel the pressure of Nyx's mind melting with his own; as soon as his eyes met Roman's pale and slightly shaking figure, though, he stopped, his eyes widening in realization.

Whatever words the prince had planned to say completely died in his throat as he watched the dragon-witch sharply turn towards his dragon, who was still glaring down at him.

"What did you say to him Nyx?!" He snapped, every trace of sleep or tiredness completely gone from his body.

The voice that answered his question though was not the dragon's sassy feminine one he was used to hear in his head, but Roman's shy and slightly shaking one instead.

"Nothing that I did not deserve to hear." He said, his voice just loud enough for both if them to hear.

Hearing those words Nyx's ears twitched and her eyes slightly widened; with all the things she was expecting to receive in response to her threat, that was not one of them. Looking back at it for a second, as she observed how Roman's hands were shaking and his cheeks were ret with shame, combined with the pure guilt and sadness in his eyes, maybe she had been a little harsh on him. Maybe. In her eyes he still deserved it for treating her best friend like shit and ignored him for two days, after he found out they were soulmates.

Roman sighed before finally looking up at them, immediately looking back down once his eyes met Virgil.

"I..." He stopped for a second, clearing his throat, "I just wanted to apologize for the way I reacted the other day. I shouldn't have-" He started, but was quickly interrupted by the dragon witch.

"No, no it's okay, I understand. I can't force you to be in a relationship with someone you barely know, let alone someone like me." He said softly, a small fake laugh slipping from his lips. Roman frowned, confused.

"What-what do you mean?"

Virgil gave him a small sad smile, his eyes fixed on the ground.

"I mean that no one would choose to spend their life with someone who lived in the woods for 24 years and has a a dragons, who most of the times acts like a complete bitch, as their best friend."

"I would." Roman replied immediately, making the dragon witch sharply turn towards him, wide eyed. Even Nyx was wearing a surprised expression, immediately a lot more interested in the conversation.

The prince was looking him the eyes, and no matter how much Virgil looked, there was no trace of mockery in his features.

Seeing the man's hesitation, the royal sighed, looking down.

"That... That is not the reason I reacted that way. I really like you Virgil, and I don't care if you grow up in the woods with no human interaction." He started, blushing slightly as he shot a quick look at him. "Sure, Dragon Bitch over there can be a pain in the ass," he continued, a small smile appearing on his lips at Nyx's soft growl and the man's sweet giggle, "But I would let her insult me everyday for the rest of my life if it meant seeing you smile again. If it meant I can be with you."

There was a second of silence, both of them blushing furiously after those words where spoken.

"It was my tenth birthday." Roman started again, his voice a bit smaller, immediately catching Virgil's attention. "I remember being so happy that I ran all the way from my bedroom to my father's office. He pulled me into a hug and spun me around before asking me what I wanted for my birthday..."

« "Ah, my little boy is finally becoming a man!" The king exclaimed, hugging the small boy tightly. "So, what do you want for your birthday, young man?"

Prince Roman thought about it for a second, before his eyes lighted up and a big smile found its way on his face.

"I want to meet my soulmate!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air and giggling.

Immediately, though, the King stare hardened, looking down at his son with sternness.

"No." He deadpanned, making the child's smile disappear.

"No?" He echoed, his voice cracking a bit, only receiving a shake of the head.

"But why not?" The man clenched his fists, looking away from the small prince's eyes that were now filling with tears.

"Why can't I meet my soulmate? You asked me what I wanted for my birthday, yesterday you told me I could have anything I wanted!"

"Anything but that. You can have anything else." The king said through clenched teeth; he had never been good at controlling his temper.

"But I don't want anything else!" Roman exclaimed, this time his voice raising slightly. His small hands clenched into fists as soon as he heard his father next words.

"Well, that's too bad. You want the only thing you can't have."

"BUT WHY?!"»

"... 'Because soulmates don't exist and even if they did and you were to meet yours, you still would never be able to spend your life with them!'." Virgil stared at him, his lips slightly parted in surprise as he observed Roman's pained expression at the memory. "That is what he yelled at me before sending me back to my room. I spent the rest of the day crying, and not even Patton's dad jokes were able to cheer me up." He took a small break to gulp down the lump in his throat and reorder his thoughts. Yes, he was only ten, and yes, it has been 17 years since that day and things were different; but those words that killed his dream so easily still hurt like salt in a wound. "Since that day, whenever I would say or even just hint, at my dream of finding my soulmate, everyone immediately shut it down, either changing the subject or telling me that I should be focusing on becoming a good leader and heir for my country instead of frivolous fantasies. It didn't matter how hard I tried to not let their words get to me, eventually I just let myself get convinced that maybe they were right, maybe I should have downgraded my dream from finding my soulmate to convincing my father to let me merry someone I could at least learn to love for the rest of my life." Once again he stopped, shaking his head, a small, sad smile on his lips as Virgil just listened intently, trying to not let his anger get the best of him.

"Then you came around." This time Roman was looking right into his eyes with a soft smile, making the dragon witch's eyes widen as he blushed slightly. "And I know I fall in love fast, but this time 'fall' doesn't sound like the correct word, because when I saw you it felt more like I was plummeting than falling. Since the night you saved me, Virgil, you literally had me wrapped around your fingers, so much so that by the time we met Remy and the others I was starting to think I had actually managed to meet the love of my life." That had the dragon witch gasp softly as he desperately tried not to blush too much, but the prince just kept going. "But out worlds are so different; in yours, spells, magic and flying on dragons are daily things, in mine the most 'magic' there is a rabbit out of a hat. That's why when I found out about being soulmates, I panicked. In my head I could just hear all of the times I had been told that soulmate don't exist, that it was all a fantasy, and the only good explanation my brain could come up with was magic. For the longest time I wanted to fall deeply and madly in love with someone, and now that I finally found someone it was all because of a spell." He laughed humorlessly, "thanks to Remy now I know that is not what it is, but when I first learnt the information I couldn't grasp the concept of soulmate and that is the only solution my panicking mind found.

"Then when Remy finally explained it to me, telling me about how a soulmate is someone Mother Nature chose for me to spend my life with, I panicked again. I had spent the last ten years of my life trying to convince my father to let me merry who I wanted, for what? Let some kind of Goddess I didn't even know existed until two days ago decide for me?" He shook his head again, smiling as he remembered Remy's reaction to what he had said. "Only when he reminded me that I was already falling for you, before even knowing about the whole soulmate thing, and that it was completely different from what my father wanted to do, I realized how stupid and incredibly dramatic bitch I had been." This time he turned towards Virgil and for the first time since they started talking, he kept his gaze. "What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry for the way I treated you yesterday. It was uncalled for and I should have tried to understand the concept better before going off on you." He concluded.

The dragon witch could feel his cheeks heating up in embarrassment as he looked away, not able to hide the smile making its way on his lips. Roman actually liked him.

"It's okay, Princey. Now I know why you did it. Plus, you're not the only one who has something to apologize for. I should have told you that morning that we were soulmates, but I was anxious and scared that you'd react badly and when I was about to we got attacked, and then after that we had to run away and then we met Remy and-"

He started rambling, but immediately froze when the prince quickly leaned in, leaving a small kiss on the corner of his mouth, making his whole face go red as he just froze.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Roman apologized, giggling, a small blush appearing on his face. "You're cute when you ramble... Virgil? Are you okay?"

With a quick movement of the tail, Nyx intervened, delivering a small slap to the back of the dragon witch's head, making him snap back from the trance he had fallen into.

"OW! What the fuck bitch?!" He exclaimed, making the royal choke down a laugh to not wake the others.

"I'm sorry bitch, your brain stopped working there for a few seconds, had to get it moving again." The dragon shrugged before turning back around, giving the two a bit more privacy.

"There were a few moments of silence, where the two did nothing but shoot shy glances at each other, blushing every now and then.

"So," Virgil said, finally finding the courage to break the silence, "what do you say, would you give this whole 'soulmate thing' a shot?"

The prince smiled at him, before looking at him in the eyes.

"As long as we take it slow, I don't see why not." He answered softly, before slowly starting to inch closer.

Unfortunately for him, though, someone had other plans.

"Slow my ass!" With another quick movement of the tail, Nyx pushed the prince against the dragon-witch's chest, making them both fall to the ground with a surprised squeal before bursting out laughing.

"Nyx, you're the worst."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, now kiss him bitch!"

Virgil didn't need to get told twice, so moving quickly, he lifted up his torso, he left a small chaste kiss on Roman's lips, leaving him completely stunned. And before he even knew it, the prince was passionately kissing his lips again, making him blush and giggle into the kiss.

"So much for taking it slow, uh?" Virgil mumbled, making the other shake his head with a small smile.

"Shut up." He laughed, his cheeks still heating up with a blush as the dragon witch looked at him with a cheeky smile, a flicker of purple brightening his eyes for a second.

"Make me..."

And with that they went back to kissing, giggling quietly as to not wake the others.

"Ugh, love." Nyx complained, tuning off their voices and drifting off to sleep; and yeah, she would always deny the happy expression on her face and the content sigh that left her as she drifted off to the sound of her best friend and their soulmate whispering sweet nothings to each others and laughing quietly. But that's not important.

Hello! So here's the new chapter! I hope the length and the fluff in it make up for my absence in the last two weeks! The ending is not very convincing to me, so it might change but rn im too sleepy to think about it lol

As always, feel free to point out any mistakes/typos you may find (and considering the conditions this was written in and the fact that the last part was written at 3:30 in the morning there are probably a lot.) and tell me what you think it might happen next!

That's all, stay safe and I love you!

Bye,

Ali c:

(Word count: 2649)