#In life I'm Dee (surrounded by gays with family issues)

[harusitoftc]

I started drawing circles, then Dave, and ended up with Dee, I'm not complaining tho

[thetomorrowshow]

89: "I could never forget you" either with Roman or Deceit? (Or both but I'm just a slut for Roceit so)

Okay I know nothing about prison but this happened! The prison au that no one asked for!

~

Dee hadn’t meant to end up here. Until recently, he’d been a college student sharing a dorm with a fellow computer sciences major. Until recently, he’d been happy (if a little bored) with his everyday life. Until recently, Dee hadn’t been charged with second-degree murder.

He hadn’t killed anyone! He had a lawyer working to get him out, but that could take months, even years. Until then, he had to survive jail. So far, it wasn’t going too well, seeing as he was a weedy, glasses-wearing nerd, the buzz cut they’d given him doing nothing to hide the splotchy birth mark on the left side of his face.

He’d finished his time in the fish tank (unfortunately, as people were a lot nicer there), and was now just trying to figure out how to survive. He’d narrowly avoided getting killed in the yard, then again in the cafeteria, and he’d only been here for three days. His cellmate, Roman, he could deal with–the man was huge, but never talked, choosing instead to endlessly tap on his prison-issued tablet. Sometimes Dee saw him out in the yard, joking with some other convicts. Once he’d seen him fight off three prisoners alone before guards could come split them up.

Most of the time, Dee kept to himself. He’d tried to talk to Roman once or twice at the beginning, but had given up. The man just stared at him. Dee struggled to follow the daily routine–checks at 10:30am, 4:45pm, and 9:25pm became regular and easy to remember, but how was he supposed to go out in the yard when there were easily hundreds of convicts twice his size out there? He never remembered to get in line for the showers in time, always taking one close to midnight. He kept missing meals, too scared to put himself in the middle of whatever chaos was going on.

Dee was struggling, and from talking with his lawyer every week, he knew that he wouldn’t be out anytime soon. He just had to keep his head down, be invisible. Surprising no one, that didn’t work.

It wasn’t his first brawl, exactly. He’d gotten involved in a few fights in high school, but he’d never been the target. A man only a bit bigger than him had been eyeing him for the past week, and today he and two others jumped him during the cafeteria rush for dinner.

This is the end, Dee thought distantly, as a fist collided with his stomach. Only it wasn’t the end. Because he was being pulled away. By Roman? Then they were in the hall outside of the cafeteria, Roman looking him over with a surprisingly gentle look on his face.

“Can’t you take care of yourself?” he muttered, then left, abandoning Dee to wonder: what just happened?

-

Over time, things changed. They still didn’t talk, but Roman would silently hand Dee his tablet, a word document open. Dee was amazed by the works there–a fantasy world, brilliantly crafted to fully immerse the reader.

At times, Roman would wait for him, then guide him through the schedule. Show him the right places to be when it was too busy, remind him to shower while everyone was exercising, and exercise while everyone was showering.

Dee got used to life. And somewhere along the way, he and Roman began exchanging words–here a “hello”, there a “how are you”. They grew closer, and it seemed that everyone knew that attacking Dee was attacking Roman in turn, and Roman had connections. For someone so quiet, he was on surprisingly good terms with most of the guards, as well as many of the inmates. Now that Dee wasn’t afraid, he found himself … enamored by the burly man. Not in a romantic way necessarily, but in a that-man-is-really-cool-and-I-look-up-to-him sort of way. It could be romantic. But Roman would never be into Dee that way, so why even think about it?

-

“How’d it go?”

Dee sighed, flopping onto his bunk. “The court date’s set for next April.”

Roman winced. “Bit far away.”

 “You’re telling me.” Dee sat up almost immediately. He and Roman were close enough now, weren’t they? He looked at the other man, sitting criss-cross on the floor, looking fixedly at his tablet. “What’re you doing?” he asked curiously.

“Spanish,” Roman replied without looking up.

“So what are you in for?” Wow, that was tacky. He’d been wondering for a while, but he hadn’t worked up the courage.

“Drugs,” Roman sighed. He gently placed the tablet to the side. “My brother dealt. I was his brute force. We knew it was bad or whatever, and we never did any of ‘em, but when you’re trying to keep your family alive you do what you can.”

“Oh.”

Roman smiled. “I know. Tough decision. Are you gay?”

Deceit choked, coughing violently. Where did that come from? When he could breathe, he croaked out, “What… ?”

“You asked an intrusive question, so it was my turn,” Roman said simply. “So are you? Because it’s tough finding someone else who is, and you’re kinda cute.”

“Did you just ask me out?”

-

So they dated.

-

Dee hadn’t expected to find his soulmate in prison. Dee hadn’t expected to find anything in prison, yet here he was with a relationship and a new appreciation for life. They weren’t public about it, and some of the guards seemed to know but never brought it up.

Roman was different, now. He was softer, yet louder. He sang in private, and Dee found himself blushing at his rough yet perfect voice. Sometimes he’d growl out a lyric, making Dee shiver, then pick the smaller man up and twirl him around.

They laughed with each other, talked until late in the night, designed a perfect world together. Roman had a fifteen year sentence that he’d completed six years of, and Dee was hopefully going to be out in ten months, so it could never work. Maybe Roman could appeal to get out early for good behavior, but it seemed unlikely that their imaginary family would ever exist. They could dream though, and dream they did.

They stole chaste kisses in the bathroom, held hands in their cell, hugged before leaving for work in the morning. Roman laughed and lifted Dee out of bed some mornings when he wouldn’t get up (and if he wouldn’t get up because he wanted Roman’s strong arms around him, that was nobody’s business). Dee massaged Roman’s shoulders at night when he couldn’t sleep.

It was love, pure and simple. They forgot the depressing reality that surrounded them and lived to see each other. They argued, of course. It was always settled by the next day, after they could talk in the darkness of their cell and work things out. It was the most perfect relationship Dee had ever been in, and worked better than most of the ones he’d seen on TV. They sang together, laughed together, cried together.

They slow danced in their cell, Roman singing as he held Dee to his chest. Concrete walls filled with murderers and rapists were on every side, yet Dee had never felt safer.

-

The day came. They both knew it would happen eventually, but neither wanted to let go of each other. Dee was free, was leaving. Roman promised to email at every opportunity, but they both knew that wasn’t very often. He would have saved up enough to call once a week for fifteen minutes. Dee could only manage a visit every two months. They wouldn’t see each other, would possibly lose this. The best thing to ever happen to both of them, this spark, would go out with no one to nurture it.

They ignored the facts, hoping that wouldn’t happen. Roman hugged Dee one last time, then stepped back. There were no tears in his eyes–he’d always been stoic like that. When he spoke, though, his voice shook. “Don’t forget me,” he said. “It won’t be too long before I’m out, and we can have that life.”

Dee was crying, and he gave his love a watery smile. “I could never forget you,” he said. They both knew that life would never happen. They both pretended it would. “I’ll wait for you.”

~

Prompts are still open!