Archive of Our Own ^beta

Roman had joined Virgil, Janus, and Remus to paint each other’s nails a few times. After the first session he’d joined them for, it had quickly become routine. He enjoyed getting to spend time with Virgil, and having a relaxed setting to get to know Janus better and improve his relationship with Remus was a plus, as well.

This time, there was an extra person in the room when Roman entered. Remy was sitting on a black cushion to Remus’ left, while Janus sat to Remus’ right. Roman sat to Remy’s left, as he and Virgil joined the group. Roman almost didn’t recognize Remy at first, seeing as for once in his life, the man wasn’t wearing his sunglasses and leather jacket. Instead, he was only in his usual jeans and white T-shirt, with a rainbow floral headband on, holding his bangs away from his face. If it weren’t for the iced coffee sitting on the table among the nailpolish, Roman would’ve thought it was Patton sitting with them, just from seeing Remy’s back.

“I don’t know how you keep doing this, Caffeine Freak,” Remus said. He was working on filing Remy’s nails, having just clipped them. “You break your nails in the weirdest ways, and that’s coming from me .”

“Gotta keep you guessing somehow, Babe,” Remy said.

“Hey, Remy,” Roman greeted, settling in. He was in a set of white skinny jeans and a red tank top worn in a French tuck, switching things up for today.

“Princey!” Remy cheerfully responded. “I’m liking the outfit,” he said.

“Thanks. Nice headband,” Roman complimented in return.

“What color are you going for this time, Ro?” Virgil asked, as he settled on his purple cushion. He was in his usual black ripped skinny jeans, and had on a black T-shirt with purple lightning bolts printed all over it.

“I actually found something I really like, lemme find it,” Roman said, pulling out his phone and navigating to the image he’d saved. When he finally showed Virgil, the other Side gave a little amused smirk.

“Strawberries? Nice,” Virgil said. “I think I can manage that, just got in a few new colors in those nail pens I like that should work for this.”

“Oh, lemme see!” Remus urged, bouncing a little where he was sitting on his knees on top of his green cushion. When Roman showed his twin the photo he’d saved for reference, the mustache-wearing twin gasped. “I think I follow that artist! They did a lime themed set a couple weeks ago, right?”

“Yeah! They’ve done a lot of fruit sets lately. Bananas, oranges, apples, pineapple.”

“Wait, I think I follow them, too!” Virgil chimed in. “Didn’t realize they were all in on the fruit lately, guess I haven’t been checking my Instagram enough. They cross post, but they do compilation posts on Twitter every four sets, so I fell behind. Their latest poll has peaches in the top spot for the next set.”

Remy’s stifled chuckle and Remus’ not-so-stifled giggling followed. “Nice,” Remus said. “Feel that, they should be good, now,” he said to Remy as he finished filing his nails.

Remy ran his nails over the exposed skin of his arm, and over the material of his shirt, making sure he felt no scratching or catching. “Feels good,” he determined.

“What colors are you guys going with this time?” Roman asked. “Oh, I wanna keep the length this time, V, they just need a file.”

“I was just about to ask,” Virgil chuckled. “I just picked up a really nice matte grey, so I think I’m gonna do that, and Janus does some really nice clouds, so we’re gonna do some clouds with the matte medium purple and matte lilac,” he said, as he started to clean up and file Roman’s nails.

“I’m doing bright green, and I’m gonna use that biohazard stencil I made, putting the pattern on in black,” Remus chimed in.

“Gold and orange gradient,” Janus simply stated.

“Re’s gonna be putting coffee beans on mine,” Remy answered.

“Nice,” Roman smiled.

A comfortable quiet fell over the group for a while, as everyone clipped and filed each other’s nails. As everyone was applying and waiting for their base coats to dry, the conversation picked up again.

“I found Logan wearing one of Remus’ hoodies in the library last night,” Janus mused. “ Could’ve been cuter ,” he said.

“Oh my god, just the mental image of that is disgustingly cute,” Remus remarked. “Also explains why I couldn’t find my hoodie.”

“One of my favorite things is finding Pat and Emi cuddled up together. Probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Remy mused.

“Yeah, that’d be up there with finding Virgil curled up on the sofa in his onesie,” Roman chuckled.

“I’m not that cute,” Virgil argued.

“Yes you are.”

“I am not .”

“You are. You’re adorable and this is the hill I will die on.”

“A little help here, guys?”

“Sorry Babe, I’ve seen you like that, and I can easily confirm that you’re cute as hell,” Remy stated.

“I may be the literal embodiment of deceit, but even I’m not that much of a liar,” Janus replied.

“I just like seeing you turn into an embarrassed blushing mess,” Remus admitted with a laugh and a shrug.

“I hate you all,” Virgil groaned, trying to stifle his chuckles as his cheeks grew pink.

“Sure you do, Virgil,” Janus mused, as he started to apply the first coat of green to Remus’ nails.

“Patton may be cute, but he’s got claws,” Roman stated. “He got me on the ground last week in the Imagination.”

“Holy shit,” Virgil responded, as he applied a coat of pink polish to Roman’s nails.

“I’ve seen him kick the head clean off one of the practice dummies,” Remus casually mentioned.

“He did what ?” Roman asked, his voice almost squeaking a bit as he finished his question.

“You heard me, Romano,” Remus said. “He kicked the head off one of the practice dummies like it was nothing. Just from standing, too.”

“How the- Even I can’t do that!”

“Well, with that revelation, you can mark me down as scared and horny,” Remy mused, as he applied the first coat of a medium-tone tan to his nails.

“Why do our partners have such unassuming exteriors containing such threatening skills?” Janus asked, letting Remus’ slender tentacles get the off-white base color he’d chosen on his nails.

“What can our resident Microsoft Nerd do?” Roman asked.

“You’d be evenly matched at best by his sword skills,” Janus answered.

“ And his archery skills are incredible ,” Remus added. “I’ve seen him split an arrow like it was nothing.”

“I didn’t know about that one, and now I’m certainly not intimidated and mildly aroused,” Janus stated.

The group all chuckled a bit at that, and the conversation petered out for a bit, as extra coats of everyone’s base color were applied and allowed to dry. Soon, things picked up again, as things were gathered up to move on with all the little details that were going to go on their nails.

“I have One stuck in my head,” Janus piped up.

“From A Chorus Line ?” Remy asked.

“Yep.”

“I love that show, but it’s also one of my worst nightmares,” Roman chimed in.

“Not hard to see why,” Janus replied. “You aim for the lead role, being put into a chorus line, where you’d just be one instance in a crowd of people all performing as one entity where nobody stands out would be the worst thing you could experience.”

“We haven’t even had dinner yet, and we’re already on the deep existential talk,” Virgil observed. “This is fine.”

“When did you guys last sleep?” Remy laughed.

“You don’t wanna know the answer to that,” Virgil stated.

“Remus and I both slept last night, this just happens, sometimes,” Janus stated.

“Uh… Does going to bed at three in the morning count?” Roman asked.

“Babe.”

“I’ll take that as a kind of .”

Virgil laughed a bit, before Remy leveled a serious look at him, silencing the Side, despite the colorful headband the other metaphysical entity had on.

“Oh, you’re on the hook, too, Stormy,” Remy stated.

“Kinky,” Remus remarked.

“Oh my god,” Roman groaned, forcing himself to remain still as Virgil worked on his nails, despite his laughter.

“Hey, you were thinking the same thing!” Remus argued.

“I most certainly was not!”

Janus simply tilted his head and gave a knowing hum, glancing over in Roman’s direction.

“Shut up, you living lie-detector.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Janus countered.

“Oh, don’t play innocent, we all know what that little head-tilt-hum meant.”

“Looks like it’s your turn to blush,” Virgil pointed out.

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” Roman replied.

The entire group couldn’t help but laugh, before things settled down as everyone worked to finish the patterns on each other’s nails. The conversation was decidedly more tame for a while, discussing various shows everyone had been watching, amusing things they’d heard from the other Sides, among other things. It eventually came time for the final clear top coat to be applied, and Remus used a pair of slim tentacles to get the job done, as was the usual routine.

“You’ve outdone yourself, My Chemically Imbalanced Romance,” Roman stated, as he looked over his finished nails.

“Anything for you, Princey,” Virgil replied with a little smile. “Within reason,” he added.

“I gotta join you guys for this more often,” Remy supposed. “This was fun.”

“You’re always welcome, Sandman,” Remus told him.

“Hm, keeping that name,” Remy mused.

“Same time in a couple weeks?” Janus inquired.

“Yep,” Virgil confirmed, as he started to gather the nail polish and set the bottles in their proper places in the organizers.

“Sweet,” Remus said with a smile, as he and Remy helped get everything picked up.

Once everything was cleaned up, Janus, Remus, and Remy left to go do whatever else they were planning on doing that day, while Roman and Virgil settled on a pair of bean-bag chairs with Virgil’s laptop. Roman wrapped his arm around the other Side’s shoulders, smiling a bit when Virgil settled in and relaxed beside him. In Roman’s opinion, there was nothing better than relaxing with his wonderful partner after putting on a fresh coat of polish.