July 31st, 2019
A/N: I had a stroke of genius when I came up with this one shot idea and I had to write it lmao

Roman shook out his nerves, giving himself a small pep talk as he prepared to enter the room. "Okay, it's okay, you can do this, Roman! You're a prince for crying out loud," he told himself. "You've fought dragon witches, you've got to be able to handle this."

With a deep breath and a quick comb through his hair, he turned and headed into the common room of the Mind Palace. Another Side was sitting on the couch and scrolling through his phone. He was the Side the prince was preparing himself to see and talk to. He swallowed nervously as he headed over to sit on the couch next to Virgil.

"Good afternoon Virgil," he greeted with a nod.

The darkly dressed Side looked up at him and arched an eyebrow at him. "Uh, hi?"

Roman forced a smile at him, hoping he appeared charming and charismatic. "What are you up to this lovely afternoon?" he asked. "Anything interesting on tumblr or Instagram, if that's uh- what you're scrolling through?"

Virgil just gave him an annoyed look and huffed. He then stood up and started to walk away. "It's whatever," he mumbled.

With that, he disappeared, heading toward his room. The prince sighed heavily, feeling disappointed and frustrated. He'd been trying to get up the courage to flirt with the anxious Side for about a month now. The problem was he just didn't know how to do it. He didn't understand Virgil that well; sometimes he seemed to hate being in the same room at him but other times Roman would catch him smiling at him when he thought he wasn't looking.

He didn't know how to talk to him and make him feel like he wasn't chastising him. He wanted him to know that he thought of him as an equal. The creative Side had always made him feel like an outcast, which is something he'd tried to fix, but he wanted to do more. He just didn't know how.

An idea struck him as he sat on the couch. Even though he'd never been good friends with Virgil, there were some Sides that had been. "Of course! He was friends with him before! He probably knows him way better than any of us do!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet.

The prince couldn't summon him here. He headed to his room, glancing over his shoulder to make sure none of his fellow Light Sides were nearby. This wasn't something that was encouraged in the Mind Palace; it wasn't exactly forbidden though either. If something wasn't very clearly against the rules, Roman wasn't against doing it.

Once he slipped inside his room, he turned on the privacy option which prevented anyone he didn't want to enter his room to do so. The creative Side took a deep breath and focused on summoning the Side he did want to enter his room.

"Well, if it isn't it-" Deceit began until his gaze landed on Roman. "Huh? I've been summoned by you? What do you want, Princey?"

He smiled awkwardly "Deceit! Long time no see!" he greeted as joyfully as he could. He was always nervous around this particular Dark Side, never truly knowing if he was trying to manipulate him or he genuinely liked him. "I'm in need of a little... assistance."

"I'm sorry?" the snake-like Side said with an arch of his eyebrow.

"Well, you and Virgil were... close, right?" Roman asked.

The Dark Side blinked at him several times. "I'm not sure what you mean," he replied with a shake of his head. "Close how?"

"Well, you two knew each other," he said, earning a blank stare from him. "I'm assuming you two were friends, considering he seems to recognize your ways immediately and he bickers with you the way you would with an old friend or something?"

"Friend is not quite the word I would use," Deceit said, shrugging as he looked away.

Roman huffed in frustration. "Alright! Can you help me flirt with him or not, Deceit?" he demanded. The snake-like Side looked toward him, eyes going wide in shock. He looked at him expectantly. "Can you? I really like him, but I don't know how he reacts to things the way someone like you might, so can you help me?"

After a couple moments, Deceit's lips curled into a smile. "Honey, you've asked the right Side."

~

Roman wrung his hands nervously as he looked around the corner of the wall into the common room. The anxious Side was lounging on the couch on his phone again, but this time, the prince was going to have a little help with flirting with him. He just had to wait for Deceit's signal.

The snake-like Side appeared in the common room, making Virgil jump a little and then sigh in annoyance. "What do you want?" he mumbled.

"What's that tone, Virge? I just want to have some fun," the lying Side replied, putting his hands on either side of his waist as he leaned forward so he was close to his face. His words seemed to send panic through Virgil's body because he tensed up and immediately put his hands against his chest and shoved. "Hey! It's alright, I'm not planning on anything!"

"Yeah! That's a bunch of bullshit if I've ever heard it," Virgil growled, shoving him off and standing up to run away.

Deceit snatched his wrist and yanked him back. As the anxious Side struggled, he shot a wink toward Roman. There's the signal, he thought with a deep breath. Now all you have to do is stand up for him! Simple!

"L-Let got of me Deceit!" the darkly dressed Side cried, voice quivering.

"You heard him," Roman cut in, grabbing hold of his other wrist much more gently. The anxious Side looked at him in shock and Deceit feigned surprise at his entrance. He puffed out his chest and lifted his chin. "Let go."

The snake-like Side grinned maliciously and even though it was an act, the creative Side felt a bit scared. "Or what? What will you do Princey?"

He opened his mouth to reply when Virgil looked between the two of them and let out a low chuckle. Both of them froze and looked toward him as he began to laugh. It wasn't until his cheeks were pink from laughing so hard that he stopped and looked between them again.

"You two set this up didn't you?" he said. Deceit and Roman looked at each other in shock before turning back to the anxious Side. "You totally did! Oh my god, is it cause Roman has a crush on me? Wow, I knew you were trying to flirt with me and whatever, but I didn't think you'd go so far as to get Deceit to help you!"

Virgil kept laughing as they released his wrists. "You... how did you figure it out?" the creative Side asked.

"It was kind of obvious, I mean, Deceit, going with that excuse for trying to harass me? I mean, come on, you were a dick sometimes when we were dating but you never went that far," he said. The snake-like Side flushed with embarrassment as he looked at him slack-jawed. "And you, Roman, you were constantly trying to start awkward conversations for no reason instead of just being normal. Of course I was going to figure out that you were trying to flirt."

"I feel like a complete idiot right now..." the prince mumbled, covering his blushing face.

Virgil chuckled and shrugged. "That's nothing new then."

"Hey! I was trying my best to be romantic!" he complained, earning more laughs from the darkly dressed Side. "And it was Deceit's idea for the whole 'rescue' situation! He said it worked when Remus made moves on you."

At this, he paused and looked toward the lying Side with an unreadable expression. Roman felt like he was missing something, but before he could ask Virgil was moving on.

"Whatever, it's not important. If you wanted to flirt with me or whatever, you should've just said so," he said, looking the prince up and down. There was some sort of caution in his eyes as he did so, which made worry worm its way into his mind; maybe he hurt him so much in the past that even now he was hesitant to get closer. "We cool then? I'll even let you take me out on a date if you don't try and stage a rescue again."

Roman's heart jumped excitedly and he sighed in relief. "Okay, I can work with that," he said, chuckling awkwardly.

"My work here is done!" Deceit exclaimed, sinking out to who know's where.

"You didn't do anything! It was all me!" Virgil yelled after him.

The prince chuckled and smiled warmly at the anxious Side, feeling hopeful that this might work out.