my-keyboard-did-it-not-me

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

"Uh huh. Have you seen your hair?" Virgil said, unimpressed.

Roman instantly conjured up a mirror. His hair was... A mess. Still. He'd been too distracted getting uncharacteristically soft photos of Virgil to actually fix his hair. He patted his hair down and tucked a few stray strands under his flower crown. He glanced into the mirror again; it was good enough.

"Okay. I have to ask," He pointed to the mirror. "How do you do it?"

"Oh, well, I wash my hair every other day with this lovely shampoos I found in France. The key is to let it partially dry with conditioner still in before you wash it out-"

"What?" Virgil interrupted. "Not that. The teleporty thing."

Roman put the mirror down into Rocky's plantpot "Oh. Yes. Well, I just imagine it's there and then," he clicked his tongue. "It's there."

"Are you making it, or like bringing it to you...? I dunno."

"I believe I summon it. But I can only do it if I know exactly what it looks like and exactly where it is. And if somebody, or a camera, is watching it either the item or me then nada."

"But you just did it in front me me."

"Yes, well, you seem to be an exception. I don't know why." Roman admitted.

Virgil said nothing in response, looking equally as perplexed.

"What about you? If you don't mind me asking."

Virgil shrugged a bit. "You saw the lightning, and phone thing. I also have some sway over weather-type stuff, I guess."

"So whenever it randomly starts tipping it down, that's you?"

Virgil looked up at him. "No, not that much. It's usually much smaller than that, like, sometimes I can stop the rain from hitting me. I don't really do it, because if I'm the only one not completely soaked that might be a little suspicious, but I can protect my headphones from getting damaged."

Roman turned his whole body to face Virgil, leaning his shoulder against the tree. "You're kidding."

Virgil whispered, "I wish."

"You're like Percy Jackson! Or Storm! Or Elsa!"

Virgil looked surprised at Roman's excitement. "Not as cool as that but I guess?"

"Can you do the Frozen thing?" Roman asked, mining out the Let It Go dance by opening his palm and pushing it up to the sky.

Virgil tried to mimic the action, with no result. "No, I can't do snow. Too hot."

"Snow's too hot?"

"What? No. It's too hot. Today. Here."

Roman pouted. "What else can you do? Could you show me?"

Virgil thought for a second, then a wicked grin spread across his face. He rubbed his hands together then poked Roman on the arm, giving him a mild static shock.

"Ow!" Roman flinched and rubbed his arm where Virgil had so maliciously shocked him. "I knew you could do that, Elle Bishop."

Virgil grinned at the Heroes reference. "Fine, uh..." He scanned the area around them, just in case. Nobody seemed to be there.

Virgil pushed his hands together until they were a few inches together, like he was shaping something out of invisible PlayDough. The air condensed into a thin, white cloud.

Roman began to reach out towards the cloud, but stopped. "Can I touch it?"

"Hold on a sec." He commanded, scooting backwards out of the tree's shade. He condensed the air further until the cloud began to rain. There was barely enough sun left in the evening sky to make a rainbow.

Roman screeched. "A rainbow! It's so gay!"

Roman shuffled in front of Virgil. He swiped his hand under the cloud. Soft drops of rain splashed onto his hand. Was this real? His hand moved straight through the rainbow and, while it physically felt like nothing, it emotionally felt like a thousand warm sparks dancing on his palm- or maybe Virgil was doing that to him.

Roman wasn't sure he could fully articulate how wonderful Virgil's powers were. Summoning things was all well and good but what Virgil could do was an art form. It was splendid, phenomenal- "It's great." Really? Just great? Why did his words betray him? He amended, "This is truly marvelous, Virgil." Better.

The rainbow wavered. Virgil looked skeptical. "Says the guy who can literally conjure objects out of thin air."

"Yes, I'm impressive, but you just made a rainbow!"

"Anybody can make a rainbow with a garden hose on a sunny day." Virgil countered.

Roman began to argue when his phone went off, 'I Can Go The Distance' blaring out of the speakers. He huffed, "This conversation isn't over. I will make you believe you are lovely."

"I knew you had an emo phase!"

Roman sent him a lopsided smile in response and picked up the phone.

The conversation was brief. The caller informed Roman that they were ready to leave and Roman thanked them, and ended the call.

"Mind if I send the plants home before we leave?" Roman asked.

Virgil looked up from his phone. "Sure, what's the plan?"

"It's probably better if I don't explain."

Roman tapped each plant in turn and concentrated on sending them home. Unlike two humans randomly appearing, nobody would notice a few plants suddenly turning up in Roman's room, so he sent them there, barely breaking a sweat while doing so- as they were barely big. "Ready?"

Virgil slipped his phone into his hoodie pocket. "For what exactly?"

Roman offered Virgil his hand. "Do you trust me?"

"What?"

"Do you trust me?"

"No." Virgil said, taking Roman's hand anyway.

"Hey!" He whined

"Okay, yes, whatever, let's go."

"As you wish."

----------

Chapter 1

Previous Chapter

Taglist: @emo-nithtmare @queen-of-deciet

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: They meet Roman’s friend and have a chat about powers

Warnings: none? Tell me if I should add any

———-

Chapter 10- Plants Vs Princes

The weather was splendid, if Roman did say so himself despite the winter rapidly closing in, not like Alicante, nor California, would really suffer from the cold. Still, with the fall sun shining hot, and a warm breeze drifting through the air, it was nice.

The start of their walk began quietly. Roman wasn’t sure whether or not Virgil was mad at him. Obviously, he had reason to- Roman had teleported them across the globe, and couldn’t get them back. Surprisingly, he hadn’t spent too long in any part of America, and had very few places he could thing of teleporting. In his new city, there really were few spots he knew that didn’t have cameras, or were bustling with people. In the city he grew up in wasn’t too far from his current address, with his roommates, but he’d never really ventured far off of their property; his father feared he’d do something dumb. Imagine was everything, after all. Roman considered trying to go to his childhood home, but thought better of it. They’d surely be caught by some camera, or neighbour. It was barely worth the risk, especially when he had other manors of returning home.

A minute of silence passed until Roman had had enough of his thoughts. Though, he had nothing to say to Virgil that he was sure wouldn’t upset him further. Was he upset? Or was it anger? Was it worse to say nothing, or add salt to the injury? He had to do something, he decided. The last thing he wanted Virgil to find him was boring. Rude, annoying? Sure, he’d heard that all before. But boring was something Roman King refused to be.

Untrusting of his words, Roman began to hum. He was vaguely aware of what the song was that he hummed, as he’d never not recognise anything from Heathers. ‘Fight For Me’, though, held a special place in his heart. He found the song in his dreams, or paintings of people he admired, and he found it stuck in his brain for several weeks on end. The tune was one he knew well, and thought not of, until Virgil joined in.

Virgil’s humming was nearly silent. It was timid. It was unsure. It was sweet, and Roman was hooked. He lowered the volume of his own humming a little, to hear Virgil better, without discouraging him. To Roman’s amusement, Virgil took the chorus’ parts, and ended the song.

“You like Heathers?” Roman asked after they’d finished the song, excitement clear in his voice.

“The film’s better, but yeah I love both.” Virgil said sheepishly.

“The film’s better?”

Virgil looked Roman dead in the eye, almost as a challenge- about to drop metaphorical gauntlet for a duel. “Christian Slater’s eyebrows.”

Roman had to concede. He looked ahead, seeing their destination looming near. “Fair point. Christian Slater is a snack. But the musical soundtrack is so powerful!”

“Let me guess: you’re a sucker for 'Our Love Is God’.”

Roman feigned offence. It was, of course, true, but he didn’t like how Virgil had pegged him so easily. “It’s romantic!”

“If you ignore the two murders in the middle.”

Roman spun dramatically in a circle. “Exactly!”

“Dude, that’s kind of an important fact to just glaze over.”

“Possibly.” Roman agreed, he supposed murder was a pretty big thing to just gloss over. “Anyway, I bet your favourite song is 'Freeze Your Brain’. You give off some real JD vibes.”

Virgil paused, staring right at him. “I look like a psychopathic serial killer?”

Roman didn’t catch the sarcasm. He backtracked, “No, no, no! Well-” He looked Virgil up and down, “Yeah, no, not really. You just have a dark edginess about you-”

“Calm down Princey, I’m messing with you. I do like 'Freeze Your Brain’, and you’re not the first one to think I give off psycho vibes. I played JD in my highschool’s production.”

“You’re a theatre kid?” Roman practically yelled. He <i>knew it.<i/> Well, he hadn’t actually thought about it before, but now that he knew it made so much sense. “I knew you could sing!”

Virgil smiled shyly in response.

“Sing something with me- Disney, you must know Disney.”

“Yes, I know Disney. No, I’m not singing.” He started walking again, getting several feet in front of Roman before he thought to catch up. For someone so short, he surely walked quickly.

“Please,” Roman begged, “From your favourite Disney film. What is it?”

“Black cauldron. No songs, it’s perfect.”

Roman pouted.

“Not happening Princey.”

“Alright, alright.” He pointed forward. “Anyway, our destination is right up that hill. The easiest pathway starts from the edge of town, unless you want to hike.”

“Can’t you just teleport us? Hiking sucks.”

“But then we’d miss all the scenery. Besides, I want to see if my friend Bea is around.” Plus, I need to save my energy, he thought.

“Fine.” Virgil agreed.

-

Bea was, just as Roman had hoped, around. She sat at her flower stall, looking bored, with a pink flower crown she’d probably spent too much time making on top of her head. She hadn’t changed too much since Roman last saw her, despite her hair having grown from a pixie cut to well past her shoulders. Nowadays, his visits to Spain were scarce.

She didn’t spot Roman straight away, as she was absorbed in her phone, her face obscured by her hair. Roman took this opportunity to sneak up on her from behind. He snatched her phone out of her hand.

“Hey!” She protested, spinning round to face Roman. The moment she saw him, her angry expression dropped to one of surprise, and then joy. She pounced on Roman, engulfing him in a hug with such power that it almost knocked him to the ground. Despite being thin, she was almost Roman’s height, and could really get some force into her hugs.

She pulled out of the hug, wearing an expression of anger again. “Where have you been? You haven’t visited in months. No calls, no texts, and you haven’t posted in Instagram in like two weeks which I guessed meant you were dead.”

Roman passed her her phone. “My sincerest apologies, although you could’ve texted me,” Bea did not like this answer. “I’ve been busy with work, and you know, moving house.”

“You moved? Since when?”

“Since a month ago. I’m living in an apartment with two lovely roommates, and J-Delightful over there.” He gestured towards where Virgil was standing a foot or two away. Virgil gave a small, awkward wave in response.

Bea rushed over to Virgil. “Ohmygosh you’re so pretty! Sorry I didn’t see you, and sorry Roman’s so terrible at introductions. I’m Bea.”

“Virgil.” He smiled politely.

“Wait a sec, I have something perfect for you-” Bea swiftly moved behind her stall and retrieved two more flower crowns: one red and yellow, braided with flowers that Roma recognised to be red carnations, as well as some other smaller blooms, and a crown which consisted mainly of deep purple flowers with kite shaped petals, and some more, pinker flowers in between. As she passed him, she placed the red flower crown hastily on Roman’s head, completely messing his hair up in the process. In a less aggressive manner, she kindly offered Virgil the other crown.

“Oh, no, it’s alright-”

“Don’t worry. I make loads. My friend has been cloning some of my plants for me so I have way more than I need.”

“Okay, well, thank you.” Virgil said, placing the flower grown lightly on his head. Roman never expected to see Virgil wearing something to colourful. Roman tried his best not to stare, failing horribly. He opened his phone camera to hide his face, and to fix his hair which Bea had rudely ruffled.

“Aw, you look so cute! Purple suits you.” Bea said, impressively energetically. Roman knew from several late night adventures in their youth, that Bea had overwhelming stores of energy that never seemed to run dry. Coming from Roman this statement truly held some weight.

“You have a boyfriend.” Roman reminded her, a little more defensively than usual.

Bea laughed, “Yeah, and you don’t, what’s your point?” She looked between Roman and Virgil excitedly. “Unless you two are…?”

“No!” Both boys said, a little too quickly. They stared at one another quickly, surprised. Virgil broke eye contact first, looking down at his feet. Roman noticed a blush creeping onto his cheeks, matching his flower crown.

Roman switched his camera round and discreetly took a picture of the blushing emo, for teasing purposes of course.

“Wow okay, didn’t mean to offend anyone.” Bea reassured, gently waving a white flower in peace.

“You could never.” Roman denied just as Virgil whispered, “You didn’t.”

“Well, anyway,” Bea changed the subject, “I’m running out of space to store all these plants so you’re both taking two each home.”

Roman had forgotten how bossy Bea could be, even when doing something nice.

Roman slid his sunglasses down onto his nose and peered at Bea over the top.“You want us to carry four plants back?”

“I’m sure you’ll manage, Maharajah”

Virgil wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “Maharajah?”

“Oh, it’s a really funny story. So I was hosting this Indian exchange student ages ago because my dad knows like three words in Hindi and thought he could speak to them, which was a disaster. Anyway, literally the second he saw Roman he just says 'Maharaja’ so me and Roman are just really confused, obviously, but we don’t think much of it. Maybe he has a friend that looks like Roman-”

“He’d be lucky.” Roman remarked.

Bea ignored him. “-called Maharajah but then him and his friend keep snickering about if and saying it whenever Roman was being, well, Roman,”

Virgil piped in this time, “So, extra?”

Bea pointed at him. “Exactly! We asked him what it meant and he, in a thick Indian accent, was just like 'In English, I think you’d describe him as an extra bitch’ which of course I would but it was hilarious and Roman was moping for the rest of the day.”

“I was not moping! I don’t mope.” Roman protested.

“Hush, Roman. The grown ups are speaking. Go get some plants.”

Virgil snickered.

“I’m older than both of you?”

Bea stared at Roman, unyielding, until he huffed and went behind the stall to look at all the plants.

“But yeah so we googled Maharajah and they used that name for their kings-”

“Which I am.” Roman said, holding two small plants up to his eye level, as if they were evidence in a murder investigation.

“-or emperors or whatever but now they just use it for extra bitches like Roman.”

“That’s… Kind of perfect.” Virgil said. “At the apartment, we just call him pool noodle, not to be confused with our snake who we call cute noodle.”

Roman emerged from the stall with a pot of red flowers, which were just beginning to bloom. “I thought I was the cute noodle.”

Virgil smiled apologetically, “Sorry, that’s Raman.”

“Raman?” Bea asked.

Virgil confirmed, “The cute noodle.”

“Ahhhh, makes sense. But why do you guys have a snake? Like, they’re cool but a kind of random pet.”

“Virgil and his much kinder-” He shot a smug look at Virgil, “brother, Patton, saved it from some birds. It’s only staying with us until the end of the week.”

“You’re just jealous it gets more attention than you, Princey.”

Roman poked one of the flower’s buds. “I most certainly am not.”

“Hey, be gentle with that. It’s just starting to bloom, loser. It’s a poinsettia, and I knew you’d choose that one.” She nudged Roman playfully. “What about you Virgil, which two do you want?”

Virgil looked over the options. The stall was full of different varieties of plants. What first caught Virgil’s eye were a load of hanging plants, dropping down from the top of the stall. They looked cool, but Virgil had nowhere to keep them. The table had a huge variety of plants, none of which Virgil could name, though he liked their pretty colours and shapes.

“What’s the easiest to keep alive? I suck at gardening.”

“I usually have some succulents or cacti which are pretty much impossible to kill but they need repotting so… Okay, this one.” She handed Virgil a plastic pot with a few small, vibrant purple flowers. “They’re African violets, very easy to care for, but they don’t like direct sunlight. What about the other plant?”

“Uh, I don’t know, maybe something for my brother? I don’t know.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet, what does he like?”

What would Patton like? A flower? A succulent? One of the leafy ones? “Uh… He likes colourful stuff?”

“Oh, me too. What about a polka dot plant?” She picked up a small bush plant with pink leaves spilling out of the side. “It’s pretty easy to keep alive- indirect sunlight, water every few days and it should thrive.”

Virgil moved his violets under one arm and took the polka dot plant from Bea, making sure to get a good grip on both. He’d be mortified if he dropped either fragile plant. “Thank you, he’ll love it.” He said, pouring as much gratitude as he could into the sentence. Roman’s friend, who he’d known for a solid five minutes was giving him two free plants which seemed to be what she earned a living from, and seemed to genuinely care about his brother. Plus, she annoyed Roman- that was a bonus. If Virgil had any money he would’ve given it to Bea, but it was… Right, in another continent. That still hadn’t sunk in.

Bea smiled and looked back to Roman. “What about you?”

“Me? What about me? Are we talking about me?” Roman asked. He’d tuned out of the conversation a few minutes ago to continue a daydream. He noticed Virgil trying to cover his mouth to stop laughing with a plant still in his hand, subsequently getting leaves in his mouth. Karma.

Bea merely shook her head, “No, dude, pick another plant.”

He glanced at Virgil, who was struggling to spit out a leaf from the plant he’d selected for Patton. Roman considered for a moment, “I should probably get one for Logan.”

“Your other roommate?” Bea asked. Roman nodded. “What does he like?”

“Uh…” Roman realised how little he knew about Logan. He could only recall one instance in which he’d spoken to Logan alone, and that was only a short conversation about coffee. He looked to Virgil for guidance, who dismissed him with a shrug. “He likes science and… Robots?”

Bea shook her head very slightly. “I don’t happen to have any robot flowers today but this is pretty cool.” She showed Virgil and Roman a pot full of stones. Roman waited a moment, wondering whether a bright pink plant would shoot through the rocks and sing the alphabet (or something more scientifically possible) but nothing happened.

“Where’s the plant?” He asked.

Bea held the plant closer to them. “Here.” She insisted.

Roman and Virgil shared a confused look.

“They’re not rocks,” Bea explained. “They’re succulents. Kinda dull to look at but like, they’re cool.”

“No way.” Virgil whispered, feeling the rock-plant. Roman followed suit, expecting a rough texture. It surprised him to feel that strange rubbery, plastic-like texture succulents all had.

“I don’t remember it’s actual name but me and Bella call it Rocky, obviously.”

“I’m sure Logan will know its name, species, origin and at least two random facts about it.” Roman said, no intentions of malice behind his words. He accepted the pot from Bea, tucking it under his spare arm.

Virgil let slip a laugh before he could compose himself back to that neutral, nearly annoyed looking expression he wore most of the time. Why he suppressed his smiles and laughter was a mystery to Roman- he looked so carefree when he laughed. It would have to be Roman’s new quest: to cheer up the emo.

Bea squinted up at the sky. “The sun’s about to set and I should probably get these plant children inside but it was really nice to meet you, Virgil.”

“You too.”

Roman was very conscious of the size of Bea’s stall, and the little amount of daylight they had left. He offered, “Any help getting the flowers back to yours?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Bea lifted the cloth that covered the stall, revealing wheels on the table legs. Roman laughed, what a Bea thing to do.

She kicked at one of the wheels, spinning it to face he same direction of the others. Bea grabbed one end of the stall and pulled it slightly. “Roman, you better text me later, and if either of you or your roommates have any questions about your plants or just want a chat, message me. Visit soon!” She pulled the cart away slowly.

Virgil and Roman yelled their goodbyes after her, then set off down the path up the hill.

-

As per Virgil’s request, they sat under a tree, not too close to the water. Of course Virgil wanted to be in the shade, here was probably melting in that black jacket.

The scene in front of them was beautiful. The number of selfies Roman had taken in this spot was infinitesimal (meaning extremely large, not tiny, as Logan had mistaken a few days ago). They had a perfect view of the sea, and setting sun. And Virgil? He was a view of his own. Of course, he lacked any sense of style at all, clad in black from head to toe, although Roman quite admired that. The juxtaposition of the colourful sunset behind Virgil, with Virgil’s black, silhouette like stature looked like an artwork Roman would have painted. Perhaps he would a little later.

“What?” Virgil asked. He placed his plant pots in the space between where they were sitting.

“Huh?”

“Why are you staring, Prince Edward?” Virgil crossed his arms over his chest.

“Prince Edward?”

“Yeah.” Virgil said slowly, “From Enchanted.”

Roman gasped, offended. “Why of course I knew he was from Enchanted. I was just surprised that you of all people would compliment me.”

“Compliment? He’s stupid and sings too much.” Virgil paused a second. “What do you mean 'me of all people?’”

“He’s brave and does anything in the name of love! And he sings a perfectly reasonable amount. Plus, he’s handsome. I find him rather relatable.” Virgil waited for him to answer his question. “I said 'you of all people’ because I don’t think I’ve ever heard you compliment anyone.”

Virgil hugged his arms to his chest. “Or maybe you’ve never done anything that I should compliment.”

“What do you mean? I look like this-” he gestured around wildly. “-every day.”

[this chapter is so long I’ll post the rest in a sec]

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That's Brewing

Summary: They meet Roman's friend and have a chat about powers

Warnings: none? Tell me if I should add any

----------

Chapter 10- Plants Vs Princes

The weather was splendid, if Roman did say so himself despite the winter rapidly closing in, not like Alicante, nor California, would really suffer from the cold. Still, with the fall sun shining hot, and a warm breeze drifting through the air, it was nice.

The start of their walk began quietly. Roman wasn't sure whether or not Virgil was mad at him. Obviously, he had reason to- Roman had teleported them across the globe, and couldn't get them back. Surprisingly, he hadn't spent too long in any part of America, and had very few places he could thing of teleporting. In his new city, there really were few spots he knew that didn't have cameras, or were bustling with people. In the city he grew up in wasn't too far from his current address, with his roommates, but he'd never really ventured far off of their property; his father feared he'd do something dumb. Imagine was everything, after all. Roman considered trying to go to his childhood home, but thought better of it. They'd surely be caught by some camera, or neighbour. It was barely worth the risk, especially when he had other manors of returning home.

A minute of silence passed until Roman had had enough of his thoughts. Though, he had nothing to say to Virgil that he was sure wouldn't upset him further. Was he upset? Or was it anger? Was it worse to say nothing, or add salt to the injury? He had to do something, he decided. The last thing he wanted Virgil to find him was boring. Rude, annoying? Sure, he'd heard that all before. But boring was something Roman King refused to be.

Untrusting of his words, Roman began to hum. He was vaguely aware of what the song was that he hummed, as he'd never not recognise anything from Heathers. 'Fight For Me', though, held a special place in his heart. He found the song in his dreams, or paintings of people he admired, and he found it stuck in his brain for several weeks on end. The tune was one he knew well, and thought not of, until Virgil joined in.

Virgil's humming was nearly silent. It was timid. It was unsure. It was sweet, and Roman was hooked. He lowered the volume of his own humming a little, to hear Virgil better, without discouraging him. To Roman's amusement, Virgil took the chorus' parts, and ended the song.

"You like Heathers?" Roman asked after they'd finished the song, excitement clear in his voice.

"The film's better, but yeah I love both." Virgil said sheepishly.

"The film's better?"

Virgil looked Roman dead in the eye, almost as a challenge- about to drop metaphorical gauntlet for a duel. "Christian Slater's eyebrows."

Roman had to concede. He looked ahead, seeing their destination looming near. "Fair point. Christian Slater is a snack. But the musical soundtrack is so powerful!"

"Let me guess: you're a sucker for 'Our Love Is God'."

Roman feigned offence. It was, of course, true, but he didn't like how Virgil had pegged him so easily. "It's romantic!"

"If you ignore the two murders in the middle."

Roman spun dramatically in a circle. "Exactly!"

"Dude, that's kind of an important fact to just glaze over."

"Possibly." Roman agreed, he supposed murder was a pretty big thing to just gloss over. "Anyway, I bet your favourite song is 'Freeze Your Brain'. You give off some real JD vibes."

Virgil paused, staring right at him. "I look like a psychopathic serial killer?"

Roman didn't catch the sarcasm. He backtracked, "No, no, no! Well-" He looked Virgil up and down, "Yeah, no, not really. You just have a dark edginess about you-"

"Calm down Princey, I'm messing with you. I do like 'Freeze Your Brain', and you're not the first one to think I give off psycho vibes. I played JD in my highschool's production."

"You're a theatre kid?" Roman practically yelled. He <i>knew it.<i/> Well, he hadn't actually thought about it before, but now that he knew it made so much sense. "I knew you could sing!"

Virgil smiled shyly in response.

"Sing something with me- Disney, you must know Disney."

"Yes, I know Disney. No, I'm not singing." He started walking again, getting several feet in front of Roman before he thought to catch up. For someone so short, he surely walked quickly.

"Please," Roman begged, "From your favourite Disney film. What is it?"

"Black cauldron. No songs, it's perfect."

Roman pouted.

"Not happening Princey."

"Alright, alright." He pointed forward. "Anyway, our destination is right up that hill. The easiest pathway starts from the edge of town, unless you want to hike."

"Can't you just teleport us? Hiking sucks."

"But then we'd miss all the scenery. Besides, I want to see if my friend Bea is around." Plus, I need to save my energy, he thought.

"Fine." Virgil agreed.

-

Bea was, just as Roman had hoped, around. She sat at her flower stall, looking bored, with a pink flower crown she'd probably spent too much time making on top of her head. She hadn't changed too much since Roman last saw her, despite her hair having grown from a pixie cut to well past her shoulders. Nowadays, his visits to Spain were scarce.

She didn't spot Roman straight away, as she was absorbed in her phone, her face obscured by her hair. Roman took this opportunity to sneak up on her from behind. He snatched her phone out of her hand.

"Hey!" She protested, spinning round to face Roman. The moment she saw him, her angry expression dropped to one of surprise, and then joy. She pounced on Roman, engulfing him in a hug with such power that it almost knocked him to the ground. Despite being thin, she was almost Roman's height, and could really get some force into her hugs.

She pulled out of the hug, wearing an expression of anger again. "Where have you been? You haven't visited in months. No calls, no texts, and you haven't posted in Instagram in like two weeks which I guessed meant you were dead."

Roman passed her her phone. "My sincerest apologies, although you could've texted me," Bea did not like this answer. "I've been busy with work, and you know, moving house."

"You moved? Since when?"

"Since a month ago. I'm living in an apartment with two lovely roommates, and J-Delightful over there." He gestured towards where Virgil was standing a foot or two away. Virgil gave a small, awkward wave in response.

Bea rushed over to Virgil. "Ohmygosh you're so pretty! Sorry I didn't see you, and sorry Roman's so terrible at introductions. I'm Bea."

"Virgil." He smiled politely.

"Wait a sec, I have something perfect for you-" Bea swiftly moved behind her stall and retrieved two more flower crowns: one red and yellow, braided with flowers that Roma recognised to be red carnations, as well as some other smaller blooms, and a crown which consisted mainly of deep purple flowers with kite shaped petals, and some more, pinker flowers in between. As she passed him, she placed the red flower crown hastily on Roman's head, completely messing his hair up in the process. In a less aggressive manner, she kindly offered Virgil the other crown.

"Oh, no, it's alright-"

"Don't worry. I make loads. My friend has been cloning some of my plants for me so I have way more than I need."

"Okay, well, thank you." Virgil said, placing the flower grown lightly on his head. Roman never expected to see Virgil wearing something to colourful. Roman tried his best not to stare, failing horribly. He opened his phone camera to hide his face, and to fix his hair which Bea had rudely ruffled.

"Aw, you look so cute! Purple suits you." Bea said, impressively energetically. Roman knew from several late night adventures in their youth, that Bea had overwhelming stores of energy that never seemed to run dry. Coming from Roman this statement truly held some weight.

"You have a boyfriend." Roman reminded her, a little more defensively than usual.

Bea laughed, "Yeah, and you don't, what's your point?" She looked between Roman and Virgil excitedly. "Unless you two are...?"

"No!" Both boys said, a little too quickly. They stared at one another quickly, surprised. Virgil broke eye contact first, looking down at his feet. Roman noticed a blush creeping onto his cheeks, matching his flower crown.

Roman switched his camera round and discreetly took a picture of the blushing emo, for teasing purposes of course.

"Wow okay, didn't mean to offend anyone." Bea reassured, gently waving a white flower in peace.

"You could never." Roman denied just as Virgil whispered, "You didn't."

"Well, anyway," Bea changed the subject, "I'm running out of space to store all these plants so you're both taking two each home."

Roman had forgotten how bossy Bea could be, even when doing something nice.

Roman slid his sunglasses down onto his nose and peered at Bea over the top."You want us to carry four plants back?"

"I'm sure you'll manage, Maharajah"

Virgil wasn't sure he'd heard right. "Maharajah?"

"Oh, it's a really funny story. So I was hosting this Indian exchange student ages ago because my dad knows like three words in Hindi and thought he could speak to them, which was a disaster. Anyway, literally the second he saw Roman he just says 'Maharaja' so me and Roman are just really confused, obviously, but we don't think much of it. Maybe he has a friend that looks like Roman-"

"He'd be lucky." Roman remarked.

Bea ignored him. "-called Maharajah but then him and his friend keep snickering about if and saying it whenever Roman was being, well, Roman,"

Virgil piped in this time, "So, extra?"

Bea pointed at him. "Exactly! We asked him what it meant and he, in a thick Indian accent, was just like 'In English, I think you'd describe him as an extra bitch' which of course I would but it was hilarious and Roman was moping for the rest of the day."

"I was not moping! I don't mope." Roman protested.

"Hush, Roman. The grown ups are speaking. Go get some plants."

Virgil snickered.

"I'm older than both of you?"

Bea stared at Roman, unyielding, until he huffed and went behind the stall to look at all the plants.

"But yeah so we googled Maharajah and they used that name for their kings-"

"Which I am." Roman said, holding two small plants up to his eye level, as if they were evidence in a murder investigation.

"-or emperors or whatever but now they just use it for extra bitches like Roman."

"That's... Kind of perfect." Virgil said. "At the apartment, we just call him pool noodle, not to be confused with our snake who we call cute noodle."

Roman emerged from the stall with a pot of red flowers, which were just beginning to bloom. "I thought I was the cute noodle."

Virgil smiled apologetically, "Sorry, that's Raman."

"Raman?" Bea asked.

Virgil confirmed, "The cute noodle."

"Ahhhh, makes sense. But why do you guys have a snake? Like, they're cool but a kind of random pet."

"Virgil and his much kinder-" He shot a smug look at Virgil, "brother, Patton, saved it from some birds. It's only staying with us until the end of the week."

"You're just jealous it gets more attention than you, Princey."

Roman poked one of the flower's buds. "I most certainly am not."

"Hey, be gentle with that. It's just starting to bloom, loser. It's a poinsettia, and I knew you'd choose that one." She nudged Roman playfully. "What about you Virgil, which two do you want?"

Virgil looked over the options. The stall was full of different varieties of plants. What first caught Virgil's eye were a load of hanging plants, dropping down from the top of the stall. They looked cool, but Virgil had nowhere to keep them. The table had a huge variety of plants, none of which Virgil could name, though he liked their pretty colours and shapes.

"What's the easiest to keep alive? I suck at gardening."

"I usually have some succulents or cacti which are pretty much impossible to kill but they need repotting so... Okay, this one." She handed Virgil a plastic pot with a few small, vibrant purple flowers. "They're African violets, very easy to care for, but they don't like direct sunlight. What about the other plant?"

"Uh, I don't know, maybe something for my brother? I don't know."

"Aw, that's so sweet, what does he like?"

What would Patton like? A flower? A succulent? One of the leafy ones? "Uh... He likes colourful stuff?"

"Oh, me too. What about a polka dot plant?" She picked up a small bush plant with pink leaves spilling out of the side. "It's pretty easy to keep alive- indirect sunlight, water every few days and it should thrive."

Virgil moved his violets under one arm and took the polka dot plant from Bea, making sure to get a good grip on both. He'd be mortified if he dropped either fragile plant. "Thank you, he'll love it." He said, pouring as much gratitude as he could into the sentence. Roman's friend, who he'd known for a solid five minutes was giving him two free plants which seemed to be what she earned a living from, and seemed to genuinely care about his brother. Plus, she annoyed Roman- that was a bonus. If Virgil had any money he would've given it to Bea, but it was... Right, in another continent. That still hadn't sunk in.

Bea smiled and looked back to Roman. "What about you?"

"Me? What about me? Are we talking about me?" Roman asked. He'd tuned out of the conversation a few minutes ago to continue a daydream. He noticed Virgil trying to cover his mouth to stop laughing with a plant still in his hand, subsequently getting leaves in his mouth. Karma.

Bea merely shook her head, "No, dude, pick another plant."

He glanced at Virgil, who was struggling to spit out a leaf from the plant he'd selected for Patton. Roman considered for a moment, "I should probably get one for Logan."

"Your other roommate?" Bea asked. Roman nodded. "What does he like?"

"Uh..." Roman realised how little he knew about Logan. He could only recall one instance in which he'd spoken to Logan alone, and that was only a short conversation about coffee. He looked to Virgil for guidance, who dismissed him with a shrug. "He likes science and... Robots?"

Bea shook her head very slightly. "I don't happen to have any robot flowers today but this is pretty cool." She showed Virgil and Roman a pot full of stones. Roman waited a moment, wondering whether a bright pink plant would shoot through the rocks and sing the alphabet (or something more scientifically possible) but nothing happened.

"Where's the plant?" He asked.

Bea held the plant closer to them. "Here." She insisted.

Roman and Virgil shared a confused look.

"They're not rocks," Bea explained. "They're succulents. Kinda dull to look at but like, they're cool."

"No way." Virgil whispered, feeling the rock-plant. Roman followed suit, expecting a rough texture. It surprised him to feel that strange rubbery, plastic-like texture succulents all had.

"I don't remember it's actual name but me and Bella call it Rocky, obviously."

"I'm sure Logan will know its name, species, origin and at least two random facts about it." Roman said, no intentions of malice behind his words. He accepted the pot from Bea, tucking it under his spare arm.

Virgil let slip a laugh before he could compose himself back to that neutral, nearly annoyed looking expression he wore most of the time. Why he suppressed his smiles and laughter was a mystery to Roman- he looked so carefree when he laughed. It would have to be Roman's new quest: to cheer up the emo.

Bea squinted up at the sky. "The sun's about to set and I should probably get these plant children inside but it was really nice to meet you, Virgil."

"You too."

Roman was very conscious of the size of Bea's stall, and the little amount of daylight they had left. He offered, "Any help getting the flowers back to yours?"

"Nah, I'm good." Bea lifted the cloth that covered the stall, revealing wheels on the table legs. Roman laughed, what a Bea thing to do.

She kicked at one of the wheels, spinning it to face he same direction of the others. Bea grabbed one end of the stall and pulled it slightly. "Roman, you better text me later, and if either of you or your roommates have any questions about your plants or just want a chat, message me. Visit soon!" She pulled the cart away slowly.

Virgil and Roman yelled their goodbyes after her, then set off down the path up the hill.

-

As per Virgil's request, they sat under a tree, not too close to the water. Of course Virgil wanted to be in the shade, here was probably melting in that black jacket.

The scene in front of them was beautiful. The number of selfies Roman had taken in this spot was infinitesimal (meaning extremely large, not tiny, as Logan had mistaken a few days ago). They had a perfect view of the sea, and setting sun. And Virgil? He was a view of his own. Of course, he lacked any sense of style at all, clad in black from head to toe, although Roman quite admired that. The juxtaposition of the colourful sunset behind Virgil, with Virgil's black, silhouette like stature looked like an artwork Roman would have painted. Perhaps he would a little later.

"What?" Virgil asked. He placed his plant pots in the space between where they were sitting.

"Huh?"

"Why are you staring, Prince Edward?" Virgil crossed his arms over his chest.

"Prince Edward?"

"Yeah." Virgil said slowly, "From Enchanted."

Roman gasped, offended. "Why of course I knew he was from Enchanted. I was just surprised that you of all people would compliment me."

"Compliment? He's stupid and sings too much." Virgil paused a second. "What do you mean 'me of all people?'"

"He's brave and does anything in the name of love! And he sings a perfectly reasonable amount. Plus, he's handsome. I find him rather relatable." Virgil waited for him to answer his question. "I said 'you of all people' because I don't think I've ever heard you compliment anyone."

Virgil hugged his arms to his chest. "Or maybe you've never done anything that I should compliment."

"What do you mean? I look like this-" he gestured around wildly. "-every day."

[this chapter is so long I'll post the rest in a sec]

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

Update on Sunday!

Chapter 9 or 10 (I have no clue which I'm on now, probably 10) will be posted this Sunday then hopefully every other Sunday after that (if I keep to my schedule)

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That's Brewing

Summary: morning in Spain, breakfast

Warnings: food/eating

(first, previous and next chapter links at end)

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Chapter 9- A Morning Of Chocolate, Charging And Charming

Waking up was always hell, Virgil thought. Waking up to the smell of burning chocolate, and the sound of faint cussing from another room, though? Virgil wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Of course he was mad about waking up, and if it were up to him he'd nestle back under the covers and sleep for another week, but he was already on his feet before the thought crossed his mind.

Out of habit he checked his phone before anything else: one message from Patton, reading 'Okay! See you tonight!' followed by a heart, cat, and tea emoji. He replied a simple 'ok' emoji and shut off his phone. Then he did what his instincts told him and followed the chocolate.

Stepping out into the hallway, Virgil pondered over why he wasn't completely freaking out right now. For once, he had plenty of reason to: he'd just discovered that his roommate could teleport, meaning that he and Patton weren't the only superpowered ones out there and there could be countless others, that his life was probably going to get a lot more complicated very quickly, and also that he was in Spain. He was sure a breakdown was inevitable. Yet, walking barefoot towards a stranger's kitchen, in a stranger's house, in borrowed clothes, he felt completely fine. Probably because of shock. Or denial. Either way, he preferred it to stressing.

As he neared the kitchen, the cursing stopped, and he noticed quiet music playing from Roman's phone on the table. Behind, Roman stood, frantically jumping between the tasks of mixing bowls, setting the table and presumably not burning the place down.

Roman hadn't noticed Virgil sit down at the table, until he went to place a cup next to him and jumped out of his skin.

"Heckedy heck! Five abs and a peck! Warn a guy before you sneak up on them."

Virgil laughed. He'd never seen Roman so disgruntled before- dressed in sweats and an oversized Disney tee, hair unbrushed and face bare, discounting the line of flour he had across his cheek. Virgil rarely caught Roman in the mornings before either of them left for work, or for social purposes in Roman's case. He liked plain Roman- he seemed less like an annoying preening peacock, and more like an annoying, cute robin. Not like Virgil had any issues with Roman looking dressed up though, both were very pleasant sights.

"Well that's... An image. But yeah, good morning to you too Princey." He said, aiming for sarcastic, but just sounding tired (which he was). He glanced behind Roman, where he could see smoke. "Uh, something's burning."

Roman quickly turned the oven off, scowling into the previously smouldering bowl. He placed it, as well as another onto the table.

Virgil peered into one of the bowls and saw a mass of clumpy, charred chocolate. He bit his lip. "This looks... Good?"

Roman sighed and flopped into the seat opposite Virgil. "I know, I know. It's burnt. It's inedible. It's unsalvageable." He draped an arm across his head. "You've found my weakness- it's chocolate."

Virgil laughed under his breath. "What were you even trying to do? Burn the house down?"

Roman titled the other bowl for Virgil to see; inside were a load of piped, yellow-y shapes.

"Churros?"

Roman nodded solemnly.

"Why is this one shaped like a deformed dinosaur?"

"I was trying to make some Mickey mouse shaped."

Virgil tried to hide his smile. <i>Of course <i/>he was. "Alright well the chocolate is salvagable. Did you make the sugar dip thingy?"

Roman perked up. "I was just about to but..." He poked the chocolate lump with a spoon. "Really?"

Virgil stood, "Is there a kettle?"

"Why, of course!"

Roman outstretched his hand and, with a slight pop, a kettle appeared.

"Dude. How do you do that?"

"I don't know, I just-" He looked suspiciously up at Virgil, "I usually can't do it with people watching."

Virgil raised an eyebrow.

"Here." Roman handed Virgil the kettle.

Virgil placed it underneath the tap and filled it. A silence fell over the cabin. Virgil realised that he and Roman hadn't actually ever spent that much time together since their first day in the apartment. He reckoned, now that some new secrets had come to light, that was going to change. Was that a bad thing?

Once the kettle was almost boiling on the stove, and Roman had (manually) found a spare bowl and several types of sugars, Roman tried to initiate a conversation. Unfortunately, it wasn't one that Virgil wanted to have so early in the- morning? Afternoon? What timezone should he even go by?

"So uh... Do you just do lightning or are you like Storm?" Roman tried.

Virgil glared at him.

Roman summoned a white flag into his hand. "Alright, alright, Lightning McQueer, we'll talk about it later."

Virgil narrowed his eyes. Did he hear Roman correctly? He huffed out a small laugh despite his best efforts not to.

Roman beamed. "Virgil smiling within an hour of waking up? What magic is this? "It's straight out of a fairytale."

Virgil shook his head. "Yeah right, as who, the villain? The evil witch?"

Roman gasped. "Of course not! You are clearly the princess. The damsel in distress." He lifted Virgil's hand and tried to spin him.

"I have a kettle full of boiling water in my hand, you dolt!"

Virgil gently pushed Roman away, careful not to

Roman chuckled. "You certainly have the distressed part of damsel in distress going on."

"Dream on Princey." Virgil poured some water into the closest mug. He looked around for a second, then at Roman, "Spoon?"

"Me?"

"Do you have a tea spoon?" Virgil asked impatiently.

Roman smirked and handed Virgil a spoon he'd gotten from seamingly nowhere. Was he creating them or bringing it from another place? If so, where? Virgil would've asked if he hadn't already waved away Roman's question about his lighting/Storm powers.

Virgil muttered a "thank you" and poured a spoonful of boiling water in the charred chocolate and began mixing.

Roman quietly mixed some sugar and then began to reheat whatever oil he'd been using to cook the churros.

It didn't take too long for Virgil to revive the chocolate.

"How did you save it?" Roman asked incredulously. He placed a plate of freshly cooked churros, and a bowl of mixed sugars, in the centre of the table. He tried to pick up one of the churros but dropped it, blowing one his fingers to try cool them down.

Virgil grabbed Roman's dropped churro. He dipped it in the sugar and stirred it idly in the chocolate.

"If you somehow hadn't noticed, Patton likes to bake cookies, like, all the time."

"Uh-huh."

"Well he doesn't like to read recipes and we both get distracted pretty easily- plus, neither of us have any sense of time- so we've burnt a lot of chocolate. And we did this one time at the apartment and Logan came out of his room for once and got all Lecture Mode and told us that when you burn it you basically remove loads of moisture or whatever so you just re-moisturize it." Virgil took a bit of the churro then reconsidered his words. "That sounds weird. But... Yeah."

"I guess the know-it-all does know some useful facts after all. Let the record show, I always had full faith in him."

"You just called him a know-it-all."

"Unimportant." Roman said, dismissing the statement with a wave of his hand. He reached for a churro but they were still steaming hot. It was possible he'd overheated the oil a bit.

To Roman's surprise, Virgil grabbed and ate another churro without issue.

"How are you not burning yourself? These churros are hotter than Hades' hair."

"They're not that hot." Virgil shrugged.

"Virgil, they're steaming hot." He poked one. "Like me but in a less fun way."

Virgil suppressed a laugh. "Drama queen."

"Emo nightmare." Roman retorted.

Virgil began to think of a witty reply but found that 'emo nightmare' was really more of a compliment. He instead replied, "Thank you."

Roman summoned a fork and stabbed a churro. He did his best to fully cover it in sugar and chocolate without dropping it and, somehow, did so successfully. It was a truly heathenly way to eat a churro, he knew, but he was hungry.

After several churros (which never seemed to cool down, by the way), Virgil finally worked up the courage to ask, "So... When are we going back to America?"

Roman wiped some chocolate off of his chin. "What's the rush? Do you have work? A date? Some emo band concert tickets?"

"Ha-ha." Virgil deadpanned. "But no. No plans. Just... You know... America?" <i>Smooth.<i/>

"Alright, My-Chemically-Imbalanced-Romance, as you wish. How about I escort you home after we both get ready?"

"Both get ready? God, we're never leaving." Virgil sniped.

"Ha-ha. I don't take that long to get ready-"

"You're the reason Logan made morning bathroom schedules."

"-<i>But<i/> I have no plans today so I have no need for makeup. Just a quick shower. I'll use the en suite in the main bedroom if you want to use the main; I know you prefer to shower at night but since you were a little busy last night..."

<i>'A little busy' was an understatement,<i/> Virgil thought, but he agreed.

-

Despite Roman's promise to be quick, Virgil was ready a whole half an hour before Roman, who sauntered in at 5:30pm (Spanish time, which Virgil didn't know how to convert to his normal time), a whole hour after breakfast.

"Dude."

"Alright, it took a smidge longer than I'd previously anticipated- outfits and all- but I'm here now. You ready to go?"

Virgil ended his conversation with Patton, who'd been texting him from work, and slipped his phone is his hoodie pocket. He stood up. Roman walked over and took him by his hands. "What are you doing?"

"We need to be touching, apparently."

Virgil recoiled. "Apparently?"

Roman laughed nervously. "I've never teleported with someone else with me."

Virgil sighed and offered Roman his hands, "Great."

Roman accepted. He held Virgil's hands tightly, which sent sparks up and down his spine (possibly literally, it was hard to tellwith him) and closed his eyes for a second, then let go. He proposed, "Why don't we for a walk first? There truly are some splendid views around here."

"Roman."

"It must be almost sunset, very picturesque-"

"Roman."

Roman collapsed onto the couch. "It didn't work."

"What do you mean 'It didn't work'?"

"I tried to take us back to the apartment, back to my room, your room, behind the apartment, backstage at the Mind Palace... Nada."

"Why?"

"I can't do it when people are watching," Virgil raised his eyebrows. "Or cameras. I guess somebody's home."

"You don't say."

"No need to fret, though, we can try again a bit later. Somewhere's got to be empty eventually."

Virgil flopped down onto the couch next to him.

"Actually," Roman turned to Virgil, "I have another solution. May take a while though. Need to send a few texts. Want to go for a walk?"

Virgil bit his lip. He hated having no control. "Okay."

"Curses, my phone's dead. Please spare me a second."

"Give it here." Virgil said, already regretting it.

Roman handed over his phone with very little hesitation. Virgil's phone was his lifeline; he doubted he could hand it over as easily as Roman had.

Virgil placed the phone between both of his palms, like a sandwich. He glanced towards Roman then back at the phone. Energy coursed through his hands, like constant static shock, although a lot less painful. He watched as the minute switched over to 17:29, and as the battery percentage steadily increased. He stopped at 20%, which took a minute, as it was 17:30 when he was done, although Virgil hadn't noticed the time passing, too focused on his task.

He could've charges the phone up fully, or a little faster but if he'd learnt anything from the seven phone batteries he'd killed within a week, it was best to take it slowly. The last thing he wanted was to ruin Roman's nice phone.

"There." Virgil handed the phone back to Roman.

Roman desperately wanted to pepper Virgil with questions about his (awesome) powers, but he'd been raised a polite gentleman and opted to only thank Virgil, no questions asked. He knew both of them were equally curious of the other's abilities, but perhaps it wasn't the right time. He'd let Virgil ask the first question.

Roman sent a series of texts and received a response almost instantly. It was technically part of her job.

Plans were made- which Virgil knew not of, for no reason other than that he didn't ask, and this wasn't something Roman paticularly wanted to be known- for an hour's time. That left plenty of time for a nice walk, and hopefully an enlightening chat, Roman thought.

----------

Taglist: *insert audio of the zoe 101 oOh*

Chapter 1:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 10: in progress

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: they’re… not in the alleyway anymore?? whoop

Warnings: kind of not really an argument?

———-

Chapter 8- Let’s Go To The Beach

Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw sand. Sand. Sand. Sand. And water. The beach? How were they at the beach? And it was light… Morning? What was going on? And where was Roman? Had he hit him?

“You shoot lightning?” Roman exclaimed from behind him.

Virgil sat up and turned to Roman, who was still standing,

“You can teleport?” He retorted.

“Yeah!” Roman shouted.

“Yeah!” Virgil shouted back.

“Fine!” They shouted in unison.

Virgil looked around at the beach again. Luckily there was nobody around, “Anyway, where even are we? And what happened?”

Roman deflated, and sunk to he floor next to Virgil, “I don’t know and I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You brought us here! And you covered my eyes so I don’t know what happened back there!”

Roman looked around, “Okay I think I know where we are but you will not like my answer.”

“How do you know I won’t like it? Where are we?” Virgil demanded.

“I know you won’t like it because you don’t like anything, Incredible Sulk and,” He ran a hand through his hair, “We’re in Spain.”

Virgil scrambled to his feet like he was stood in lava, “Spain? As in Spain Spain?”

“Yes.”

“Like Europe’s Spain?”

“Yes.”

Spain. Virgil collapsed back onto the sand, “So you can teleport.”

“Yes.”

“So you can teleport us anywhere– say, for example, our apartment– and you choose Spain.”

“Well I didn’t really choose Spain,” He said cautiously, “I just kind of panicked. But there are worse places we could be?”

Spain. Europe. Virgil had always wanted to go. Maybe a nice holiday in a few years. Not like this.

Virgil ran his hand through the sand, “Mhm.”

“I should be able to return us home in the morning, once I have regained my energy.”

Virgil squinted up at the sun, hanging low in the morning sky.

Roman clarified, “Our timezone’s morning.”

Virgil nodded slowly.

A cold breeze whipped across the beach. A harsh reminder that winter was coming.

“You’re shivering,” Roman yawned, “We should get inside.”

Virgil lifted his hand to confirm that he was, in fact, shivering; although he wasn’t sure if it was caused by the cold, shock or just anxiety, “Inside where?”

Cautiously, Roman stood, swaying slightly. He attempted to gather his bearings. In the distance he saw the spire of the town’s chapel, meaning there should be a beach house only a minute or so away. His teleportation accuracy wasn’t too bad. Not great but not too bad.

“There’s a beach house like one minute away; we can stay there.”

“Okay,” Virgil said, making no attempt to stand.

Roman stood awkwardly for a few seconds. Cautiously, he offered Virgil a hand up.

Virgil accepted the offer without a thought and followed Roman as they began to walk down the beach.

Virgil stared at his feet throughout the short walk, dragging them slightly through the sand. Roman and he walked close, occasionally bumping into one another, but they walked in silence. Virgil didn’t know whether the silence was comfortable or uncomfortable; he sure felt uncomfortable but when didn’t he?

Roman broke the silence first, “It was much closer than I had expected. My navigational skills truly are sublime.”

“Yeah so great that we’re in Spain.” Virgil mumbled.

Roman huffed, but didn’t argue. Out of his pocket, he produced a key which he used to unlock the door to a large, wooden beach house with wide windows. Virgil couldn’t see inside the house as the curtains were drawn, but he could tell just from the exterior that the place was expensive. Was it Roman’s? Did he carry that key in his pocket all the time? Did they have WiFi? Stupid question, of course they had WiFi. Still, that didn’t calm his nerves.

Roman pushed open the door and stumbled in, his usual grace replaced with obvious fatigue.

Roman gestured lazily around the house as he walked through, “Living room- TV is in Spanish. Kitchen- help yourself. Bathroom.” Virgil barely had time to take it all in at the pace Roman was going. He gestured to the final two doors in a corridor they’d entered, “My room. Your room. WiFi password is ‘Pinnochio’. Help yourself to whatever, seriously. Goodnight.” Roman disappeared into his room.

Virgil heard as Roman immediately flopped onto his bed. He opened his own door and ventured into 'his’ room. It was clearly a guest room- minimalistic and decorated with very simple blues and grays. Virgil carefully removed his shoes and lay on the bed. He reached into his pocket for his phone. It wasn’t there.

Virgil jolted up into a sitting position, “Shit.” He checked again. And again. The checked all his other pockets, twice. It definitely wasn’t there. Of course it wasn’t, he thought, there were so many opportunities he could’ve lost it. It could be halfway across the world, or buried in sand. Virgil knew his breathing was becoming erratic and looked around frantically for anything with a steady beat to count with. Aha! There was a clock on the wall.

Virgil closed his eyes and listened for the sounds of ticking. They were faint, but present. In for seven ticks. Hold for six ticks. Out for four ticks.

After many ticks, probably several minutes, Virgil’s logical thinking came back well enough for him to think productively.

He had a few options: he could go to sleep, because that panick attack had really tired him out, and deal with everything later; he could go search for his phone in an unfamiliar country with no sure way to contact anyone if something went wrong, or risk getting locked out of the house, or he could go wake up Roman.

Virgil was leaning heavily towards the 'go to sleep’ option until he thought of his brother. It had been a passing 'what would Patton want me to do?’ thought, but it had spurred on a whole string of tangled, non-sensical thoughts. At first he’d been mad that he hadn’t thought about messaging his brother straight away. If he’d not arrived at home without saying anything, Patton would be worried sick. That was the last thing Virgil wanted. The thoughts spiralled further from there. He imagined scenarios of Patton in the morning, stressed out of his mind, running frantically around town, getting injured, getting lost… He was wasting time. The clock told him he’d been there an hour. It had only felt like twenty (hell-ish) minutes. Did he blame his anxiety or ADHD for that time jump? Both liked to speed up time and making him feel like he’d missed time. Together they made hell of time management.

Either way, the longer he waited, the higher the chance Patton would worry. That thought prompted him to get off of the bed and leave his room. But where was he going?

Virgil stood in the hallway. Opposite him was Roman’s room. He could knock, wake Roman up and borrow his phone. Of course, he’d be disturbing him. And he had been so tired after teleporting them across the globe- God, Virgil still hadn’t let that fully sink in- and it felt wrong waking him up after that. Surely he’d be mad. But what was the alternative? Search the beach alone? If it was easy to spot, it surely would’ve been stolen by now, and if it was buried under the sand who know if Virgil could find it or if it even still worked. Which direction had they even come from?

What would Patton want him to do? What would Patton want him to do?

He closed his eyes and knocked quietly on Roman’s door. No response.

He knocked again, louder. This time, Roman sleepily called out, “Yeah?” and then, when Virgil said nothing, added “Come in.” Virgil obliged.

Roman’s room had the same basic layout as Virgil’s, but bore bright reds and accents of gold, rather than the muted colours. Light streamed through a window, showing carefully placed Disney and musical posters plastered the wall above Roman’s bed, occasionally accompanied with polaroids, though they were scarce. Not many other personal items seemed to live in the room, other than a couple of books on a mainly empty bookshelf. Logan wouldn’t approve.

Roman still lay, mostly asleep, on his back despite Virgil being in the room. Virgil briefly wondered whether he’d imagined Roman telling him to come in, until Roman rolled onto his side and asked, “What’s up?”

Virgil shuffled closer towards the bed. “Uh, well, I lost my phone at some point and I, I should really text Patton so he doesn’t get worried about me. Could I borrow your phone please?”

Roman remained silent for a few seconds. He may have fallen back asleep, or his mind may be taking a little longer than usual to process everything Virgil had sputtered out, but he eventually held his hand out and… The air grew cold. Virgil’s phone appeared in Roman’s hand.

Virgil took a step back. He was sure the phone had appeared out of nothing. “How did you-”

“I’ll explain later.” Roman promised. Very tired.“

"Right. Sorry.” Virgil said, shifting towards the door. “Goodnight.”

Roman yawned, “Phone.” and waved his hand around a bit. Virgil mentally slapped himself. His forgetfulness and idiocy was genuinely impressive.

He took the phone from Roman and whispered “Thank you.”

Roman grasped his hand as he pulled away. His grip was gentle, but Virgil still flinched at the unexpected contact.

Roman propped himself up lazily with his spare arm and squinted up at Virgil. “Try get some sleep. You look dead. Wear my spare pajamas. Top drawer next to the door.”

“It’s fine I-”

“Just do it, Barry Grouch, you’ll look adorable. And could you close the curtains please?”

Virgil didn’t argue. He only just managed to splutter out a quiet “Sure.” as he drew the heavy Res curtains shut. He awkwardly grabbed a gray shirt and some black pajama pants from Roman’s drawer and finally left the room.

“ 'Night.” Roman quietly shouted to Virgil after he closed the door. Virgil leaned against the hallway wall and whispered “Goodnight.” back. His cheeks burned and his head spun. What had just happened?

He traipsed thoughtlessly back into his room and messaged a quick excuse to Patton, explaining how they’d run into one of Virgil’s work friends and crashed at his place, and that Patton didn’t need to worry. The phone was low battery, but he didn’t care enough to look around for a charger, so Virgil simply texted Patton again saying that he should text Roman if he needed to talk to one of them. Then he switched it off and placed it on the nightstand.

Feeling rather rattled and out of place, but predominantly tired, the small adult changed into his borrowed pajamas. He smelt a faint fragrance of Roman’s spray, and those rose candles he always burned. The soft clothes hung off of his slim figure. They weren’t actually too much bigger than Virgil’s usual pajamas, but his were a size too big anyway. He liked loose fitting clothes more than anything else.

Virgil drew his own curtains shut and slipped under the covers of the bed. Unlike any other night that month, he fell quickly into dreamless sleep.

———-

Taglist- Imagine

Chapter 1:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 9: in progress

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: Pat & Lo leave restaurant early to take Roman

Warnings: restaurant, someone’s a bit ill, dark alley (but not for long dw)

(first, previous, next chapter links at bottom)

———-

Chapter 7- You Okay, Boss?

Virgil stepped out of the bathroom and scanned the restaurant for his table. It was easy to find the large Hogwarts-themed tables in the corner while the lights were on. It was lucky Roman hadn’t stated singing again, Virgil didn’t think he could find the table in the dark. He’d left his contacts at the apartment.

From what Virgil could see, Patton and Logan in some awkward staring contest in silence. He neared the table and heard Logan say something, to which Patton replied, ‘Pasta.’ What were they talking about?

Patton spotted Virgil approaching.

“Virgil, kiddo! I’m glad you’re back!”

Virgil looked suspiciously between the two, “Uh, what were you guys talking about?” 

Logan didn’t have a chance to reply.

“Food!” Patton said, “Tomorrow night! Pasta sound good?”

Logan shot him an irate look.

What was going on? Virgil was certain it wasn’t about tomorrow night’s dinner.

Luckily or unluckily (Virgil wasn’t sure), Roman was back on stage before he could get an answer. Virgil supposed his answer could wait. Patton couldn’t lie to him when they were alone later.

Halfway through Roman’s set, Roman’s manager walked, or rather, stumbled towards the guys’ table.

“Hey guys,” He whispered, leaning slightly on the table, “I’m feeling a little under the weather, do you mind asking Roman to lock up?” He slid his key across the table.

Logan reached for the key. 

“Of course.”

Patton frowned, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a little ill. Nothing big.” He coughed.

Virgil, who was closest to the manager, covertly shuffled away.

“Well, I hope you feel better dude.”

“Thanks.”

The manager started to walk away. Almost immediately, he walked into a table then apologised profusely.

Patton quietly called him back to the table.

“How are you getting home?”

“Walking. I only live twenty minutes from here.”

“You are in no fit state to walk that far.” Logan stated, “I can chauffeur you home. Then I may return and pick up Patton, Virgil and Roman so we may go home also.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to be a hassle.” The manager said.

Patton yawned, “Of course you’re not a hassle. We insist.”

“Pat maybe you should go with them. You’ve been yawning all night. After you drop, uh-” Virgil couldn’t remember the manager’s name. Had they actually ever been introduced? “-after you’ve dropped him off, go home. Me and Roman can get home alone, it’s a short walk.”

Patton furrowed his brow.

“Are you sure? I can stay- or we could stick to Logan’s plan?”

“Yeah, it’s fine Pat.” Virgil insisted.

“I agree with Virgil. Plus, we can continue our previous discussion.”

Patton’s gaze lingered on his brother for several seconds before he agreed.

Virgil reckoned, from the manager’s expression, that he wanted to dispute the plan. Perhaps offer to walk again. Virgil would. However he’d grown increasingly paler and sickly during their short conversation. Virgil hoped that his illness wasn’t contagious.

Logan traded Virgil the restaurant key for the car keys, which Roman had entrusted him with, and left with Patton and the manager.

Roman, who’d been watching the whole ordeal confusedly from the stage, was trying to catch Virgil’s eye and ask what the hell was going on.

Virgil glanced at Roman finally who looked at him, to the door and then put his hand up in a “what just happened?” kind of gesture while still singing.

His reply, too, was a series of gestures that would most certainly not win in a game of charades: using his fingers held up to his eyes as glasses, he mimed out Patton and Logan driving, followed by an outline made by his fingers of the roof of a house, signaling that they had driven back home.

It was a confusing show to say the least, but Roman seemed to understand well enough. He nodded to show his comprehension, then pointed to the door of the back office with a questioning look on his face. 

“Boss?” he mouthed during the instrumental of his current song.

Virgil hung the keys by his pointer finger and shook them near his own face so that Roman could see. He flashed him a quick “what are ya gonna do” face, which was met with a pair of thumbs up and Roman’s stupid, perfect smile.

Virgil couldn’t help but return a small smile before he tore his gaze away and back to the table.

There were only two more songs left in Roman’s set, to Virgil’s disappointment. While he didn’t know half of the sings that Roman had sung, he still enjoyed it a lot. Roman was an amazing singer- a fact that he told Roman as soon as he left the stage (after a long bow and applause, of course, even though there were only a few people left in the restaurant).

Roman smiled awkwardly, “Thanks,” He looked around the now empty restaurant, “So, why did the nerd, Patton and Thomas leave?”

'Thomas! That was his name!’ Virgil recalled.

Virgil sat down again at another table. Roman followed suit.

Virgil explained, “Your boss- uh- Thomas looked super ill and was gonna go home but Pat insisted on driving him, well, Logan driving him. Anyway they were gonna come back for us but it was nearly the end of your set and Pat looked really tired so I said they should just go home,” He couldn’t read Roman’s expression, “They obviously took your car, is that okay? I can text Pat or Logan and ask them to pick us up-”

“There’s no need to do that, Charlie Frown. I’m sure I can escort you home safely,” Roman assured Virgil.

“Escort me home?” Virgil snickered, even though he was a tiny bit grateful. He was understandably nervous about walking home at 11pm. They’d have to take the backstreets if they wanted to get home quickly- or get stabbed. Either way.

“Of course, what else is a prince to do?”

Virgil rolled his eyes, “You’ve really embraced the prince thing, huh?”

“Obviously, it’s so on brand for me,” He struck a pose. Virgil reluctantly laughed.

“Alright Princey, but we should probably get going.”

“Alas, you are correct,” Roman hopped off the bench he’d been perching on and offered an arm for Virgil, “Let us depart.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, which was becoming a common occurrence around Roman, but took his arm anyway; only because that was the quickest way to make them start walking, of course.

Roman locked up. Virgil made sure that all entrances were locked. Three times. Then they began their journey.

Strangely, the walk would’ve been quicker than the drive, due to the strange layout of that part of town. Of course it only would’ve been quicker, had they not gone down one alleyway that changed their journey completely.

Until Roman and Virgil had approached this alleyway, they had spoken in comfortable quiet conversation; speaking of nothing in particular, but speaking nonetheless. However, upon entering the alleyway, the two fell silent. Neither knew why exactly, they just felt a building sense of foreboding.

The alleyway wasn’t too narrow. Virgil and Roman could walk comfortably side by side, with the large garbage bins to their side. Virgil always found alleyways that were very narrow to be scary– there was little space to run. But wider alleyways were equally as frightening (who knew what was lurking near the bins?) Maybe Virgil just didn’t like alleyways. It was one of the countless things that made him nervous.

Suddenly, the bins rattled. Virgil and Roman shot around. Virgil’s anxiety shot through the roof. A thousand volts coursed through his body. Metaphorically, and then, literally. A bolt of lightning shot from Virgil’s body and hit a bin. He heard a yelp.

At the same time, Roman covered Virgil’s eyes and grabbed his hand. Virgil felt as if he’d been submerged into an ice bath. The world spun and then… He fell.

He hit the ground but it was soft, unlike the cement they’d been walking on before.

———-

Taglist: r/nobodyasked(tobeadded)

Chapter 1:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 8:

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: continuation of restaurant thing

Warnings: food/eating mention

(first, previous, next chapters to be linked at bottom)

———–

Chapter 6- A Fine Summers’ Day

Virgil’s attention was drawn to the stage by a man Virgil recognised from earlier as Roman’s manager, though he didn’t catch the name.

“What is up everybody, welcome to the Mind Palace. Tonight we have a very talented singer and my personal friend, Roman King, if you’d welcome him to the stage…” Roman’s manager said. Roman walked onto the stage to a chorus of clapping and even a few whistles (of course).

His manager passed him the microphone and left the stage with a wave and a final “Have a nice meal.” Roman took centre stage.

“Greetings fair citizens. I’m going to start off by singing a new song that came out a few days ago, it’s a little gloomier than usual, but I know some people in this audience that love a little gloom so…” Roman trailed off as the music began.

Virgil briefly wondered whether that comment about gloom was aimed at him, as it usually was, but all thoughts went out the window when Roman started singing.

Virgil recognised the song almost immediately. It was ‘When The Party’s Over’. He’d been playing it on repeat for days since its release. The music video was so aesthetic- in a gothic way.

Roman’s voice, which Virgil had always heard as upbeat and powerful while singing Disney songs, was now soft, melodic, hypnotising. Virgil was enthralled.

He remained that way until Roman’s first break of the night.

“So, how are guys enjoying the show?” Roman asked as he slid back onto the bench next to Logan.

“You’re amazing Ro!” Patton beamed.

Logan agreed, “Certainly, your vocal range is admittedly impressive.”

Roman looked expectantly at Virgil. Patton nudged him.

“It wasn’t…” Virgil desperately tried to think of a suitable adjective to describe Roman’s performance, which had been great. Great! Great is an adjective! “Great.”

Roman’s smile wavered slightly. Virgil realised what he’d said, “Wait no! I meant terrible.” Roman’s smile faded further. “No, wait, no, I meant it wasn’t terrible. It was great!”

Roman paused for a second. Virgil’s heart skipped a beat. Then Roman laughed, not in a nasty way, “A compliment- sort of- from Virgil? Mr Grump himself? I must be doing well,” Virgil exhaled. “Anyway glad you’re all enjoying yourselves. I’m going to go get some water then get back on stage, see you in half an hour.”

Once Roman was out of earshot Virgil put his palms to his face and groaned “Why???” Sadly, his arm slipped and his head quickly made contact with the table. He continued to gently bang his head against the table until Patton slid his arm underneath.

“It wasn’t that bad kiddo.” Patton assured him.

Virgil rested his head on Patton’s arm for a minute then said he was going to the bathroom. Patton smiled softly at him as he left.

Alone (with strangers), Logan turned to Patton and asked, “So does Raman like his name, then?”

Patton looked at him strangely, “I don’t know Lo, why’d you ask?”

“I thought he would have told you.” He stated.

“No… Plus, I wouldn’t know even if he did…” Patton said slowly.

Logan looked quizzically at Patton, “But you can speak to animals, is that not correct?”

“No?” Patton replied unconvincingly.

Logan winced, “Could you please refrain from telling lies? It is giving me a quite a stomach ache.”

Patton panicked. What did that mean? Did Logan have powers too? Was he actually making Logan feel ill or was it a figure of speech. No, it couldn’t be- Logan didn’t know any. While thinking of what to ay, he forgot to say anything at all.

“Patton?” Logan prompted.

In his panicked state, all Patton could think to say was, “Pasta.”

It wasn’t a good day for the Summers brothers.

———-

Taglist: yeehaw

Chapter 1:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 7:

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: first glance of restaurant

Warnings: food/eating mention

(first, previous & next chapters linked at bottom)

———-

Chapter 5- The Mind Palace

The car journey wasn’t great. Patton called shotgun, so he sat up front with Roman (who, for the record, was a terrible driver). The pair ended up singing the whole journey. Logan inquired about whether it was best for Roman to be wearing out his voice before a performance, but Sir Sing-A-Lot argued that he was warming up. Though, Virgil knew that there were better ways to warm up your voice than failing at rapping Nicki’s part in Bang Bang.

That left the two less enthusiastic singers in the back trying, failing and eventually giving up on holding a regular conversation. Luckily, the car journey was pretty short- lasting only four songs (two of which Virgil, the emo he was, didn’t even recognise).

From outside, the restaurant didn’t look like anything special. The white paint on the bricks was peeling and the whole place looked quite small. The door was painted dark blue, with several darker panels painted in, and white squares at the top that reminded Virgil of the TARDIS. When he walked inside the restaurant, he found out why. The place was a lot bigger, and a lot cooler, than its outside suggested.

The entire restaurant was a mix and match of seats and sofas from various film and television shows’ sets all centred towards a small stage in the middle of the back wall, between two closed off rooms Virgil assumed to be the kitchen and perhaps a storage or changing room.

Immediately next to the entrance was the iconic couch and table set from Friends. There sat five girls; one of whom didn’t look completely dissimilar to Phoebe, with long blonde hair and hippie clothes. Virgil thought that perhaps it was on purpose, or maybe just a lucky coincidence. Although Virgil didn’t quite believe in coincidences. He chose instead to believe that figures, like the Fates from Greek mythology, liked to sit around and decide on fun ways to mess with Virgil.

Behind the Friends set up were four wooden tables with benches on both sides. They were relatively big; Virgil thought that with a squeeze, each bench could fit about eight people, meaning a table could seat sixteen. When the group walked a little further in, he saw four prominent, coloured banners hanging on the walls above the tables: yellow for Hufflepuff, red for Gryffindor, blue for Ravenclaw and green for Slytherin. Hanging above the tables were electronic candles. They weren’t on at that moment, but Virgil still thought they looked extremely cool, and it was a great detail to throw in.

Further back was a dark oak door. There was a sign on it, but from the distance, Virgil couldn’t make it out.

A small, dark wooden corner bar sat at the edge of the room. Over the top of the bar was a sign that said ‘Puzzles’. Virgil couldn’t figure out what the bar was a reference to. To him it was, well, a puzzle. Virgil internally groaned. He’d been spending too much time with Patton.

In the centre of the room stood six circular tables with white table cloths covering them. Each table had a set of menus in the middle, accompanied with a small pink lamp on one side and a vase of (probably fake) roses. It was very cliché. Very romantic (not like Virgil would ever going with a date). Very tasteful. The whole set up gave Virgil a French vibe for some reason. Those tables definitely had the best view of the stage, but each only seated two people.

The stage itself was not very big. However, in the pretty small restaurant-café-bar-hybrid it looked bigger. It was clearly supposed to be the central point of focus. Red curtains hang open either side of the stage, although Virgil wasn’t sure if they were functional or not.

The whole place felt like someone at the movies had eaten a pick 'n mix bag of fandoms and then thrown it all up. In other words, it looked quite like their side of Virgil’s mind. The place was called 'The Mind Palace’ after all.

Confirming all earlier suspicions, Roman’s manager was very surprised to see him arrive early, even more so when he said he was there to help set up the stage. Turns out, they never actually put the equipment away since they had live music on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and karaoke on Sundays. Virgil made a note in his phone about never going to the restaurant on Sundays.

With almost an hour to kill before Roman’s performance, all four got a table. Well, shared a table with some strangers. The only tables left that could fit them all were the Hogwarts tables. Everyone agreed that Roman could pick the table so of course he picked Gryffindor which was the busiest.

Roman and Logan sat on one side, Logan wedged between Roman and a stranger. Roman insisted on sitting on the edge so that he could leave quickly to sing. Virgil sat on the end for the same reason, minus the singing. He also didn’t like the idea of being sardined next to a stranger. Logan wasn’t particularly fond of it either, but he knew that he’d have more space once Roman left, unlike Patton and Virgil who’d remain squished, so he didn’t complain… Much.

The menus were presented in rolled up scrolls. Virgil thought that was a nice touch. Roman informed his friends that each section of the restaurant had a specialised menu themed on what fandom they were from, except the Hogwarts section where the food was a big mix and match of everything. Roman’s boss was the coolest.

Roman only ordered a drink, yet his still took the longest to order as his drink order was so unnecessarily complicated: warm milk with about one eighth of a cup of honey, a spoonful of sugar (a line that he sung, to which Virgil commented about how he really chose to be as extra as possible whenever he was given the opportunity), 3 drops of vanilla extract and several drops from a fresh lime.

The waitress sighed, “Roman, you know we don’t stock any limes.”

Roman smiled and threw the waitress, Mandy, a lime he brought out from his pocket. Seriously, what? Where did he get the lime from? Had he bought it before his manicure and had it in his pocket the whole time?

Mandy laughed, pocketing the lime. She continued to take their orders as if this was normal.

Mandy seemed to be used to Roman’s stupid antics. If Virgil got a customer as annoying as Roman, he’d probably quit right then and there. Roman claimed the drink readied his throat for singing which was fair, except Virgil was sure plain water or milk would do fine. He was just being fussy.

The two vegetarians with glasses both ordered salads and vegetarian burgers. Logan ordered a green tea too. There was some boring reason for his choice that he’d explained to the rest, and the waitress, but Virgil had been really interested in his napkin while he was explaining and missed it.

Patton also ordered a regular burger for Virgil and hot chocolates for the both of them. Virgil had actually wanted a soda, but Patton thought a hot chocolate was more appropriate for the late hour. Virgil wasn’t going to protest.

The restaurant began to fill up in anticipation of Roman singing, but their food still came relatively quickly. It was delicious too. Everybody wolfed down their food and was finished before Roman’s performance, except from Roman

“Logan, what time befalls us?” Roman asked dramatically, pointing at Logan’s watch, as if he didn’t have his phone in his hand.

“This watch shows the time in Greenland which I doubt would be of much use to you, however…” Logan briefly brought out his phone, “In our current time zone, the time would be four minutes to nine.”

“Thanks teach.” Roman said, sliding himself of of the bench. He slid his drink over to Virgil, “It’s best when warm but I’m sure you’ll still love it. Enjoy!”

Roman pranced off behind the bar and through a door before Virgil could protest. Virgil looked cautiously at the drink. Who knew what illness that drama queen could be hosting? Still, Virgil was curious.

He picked up the mug, discreetly warming it in his hands. Then, he sipped. Admittedly, despite being as obnoxious as it was, it was really good. Sweet enough to satisfy Virgil’s sweet tooth, but not so sweet that he thought he’d have to schedule a dentist appointment straight afterwards. That lime really added a nice tang.

Virgil was brought back to attention by a gentle tap on the shoulder. Patton barely touched him, yet still received a static shock and shocked (in the less literal sense) Virgil. 

“Sorry,” he whispered, “But look!”

———-

Taglist: me, myself, I

Chapter 1:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 6:

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: they just kinda speak

Warnings: mention of snek

———-

Chapter 4- The Day Gets Longer

“You’re afraid of snakes.” Virgil said when they got home, flopping onto the leather couch that he hated peeling himself off of. Seriously, why did Roman have to bring a leather couch? Who even owned spare black leather couches?

Across the apartment, Patton was quietly chatting with Logan about their experience at the vet.

“What? I most certainly am not. What ever gave you that idea?” Roman spluttered.

“Its okay if you’re afraid of snakes, Roman.” Virgil said.

“Sure it is, but I’m not. So…” Roman replied, unconvincingly.

“Hey Pat,” Virgil sing-songed, smiling mischievously at Roman, “Can you bring Raman over here?”

Patton looked at Logan, and the pair walked- well Logan walked, Patton pretty much skipped- to meet their other roommates in the lounge.

“Raman?” Patton asked.

The thing with animals is, usually they don’t have names. It’s a very human thing. Some more advanced species, did in fact use names when speaking to each other, like dolphins used unique whistles to identify each other, but Patton was the only one that could pronounce them (Patton could do a very good dolphin whistle, as everyone found out when Patton and Virgil last went to the zoo, that was a very stressful day). So, the first thing Patton did with animals that would be sticking around- like Margaret or Michael or the hundreds others that Patton somehow remembered- was find a suitable name for them that humans could pronounce too.

The animals liked it most of the time. Virgil prayed this was one of those times. The snake wouldn’t bite him with Patton around, surely, anyway. But what if Patton hated it too?

Virgil shrugged, as best as he could while lying down, “Dunno, seemed pretty fitting, ‘cause he looks like a noodle.” And it will drive Roman insane, Virgil thought.

“Aw, I love it!” Patton clapped, Raman looked annoyed at the sound.

Logan sighed sadly, “I don’t think it is wise to get attached to this snake- you said we must take him to the shelter in a week.”

Patton’s face fell, “Well, the shelter said we should but what if-”

“We cannot have pets in the apartment, Patton. Plus we have already spent a lot of money on it-“ Everybody avoided eye contact with Logan, “-and I do not think that you will very happy with the snake’s feeding habits.”

“What do snakes eat…?” Patton frowned.

Logan opened his mouth to answer but Virgil spoke first, “It doesn’t matter Pat. Anyway I was wondering if I could hold Raman?”

Roman glared at Virgil. Patton, on the other hand, seemed delighted, “Of course! I’m sure you two will get along great.”

The snake hissed something. Virgil’s nerves shot up. Patton wouldn’t reply, right? Right. Patton simply nodded subtly and handed the snake over to Virgil, who sat up and offered his arm.

The snake happily (as far as Virgil could tell) coiled around his arm.

Patton leaned in close and whispered quietly to Virgil, “He likes his name.” Virgil smiled softly, then made eye contact with the snake. They regarded each other curiously, but neither attacked, so they were both content.

Their calm moment ended quickly when an idea struck Patton, “Since we’re all here, why don’t we watch a film or something?”

Virgil nodded and adjusted himself so that Roman could sit on his left, next to Raman. Virgil looked innocently up at Roman. He eyed the snake cautiously.

“Sorry Pat, I’ve got to leave for work.” He lied, only checking his phone for the time afterwards. 7:30. He didn’t actually need to leave for another hour, maybe he could go to a coffee shop or something.

Logan fidgeted, “You don’t have to be at work for another ninety minutes.” He stated.

Virgil looked quizzically at Logan. Logan even looked surprised himself. Honestly, not even Virgil knew Roman’s schedule. Perhaps, Virgil considered, Roman’s spy theory had some credit after all. He quickly waved the ridiculous idea out of his head before he could start panicking about what a spy could learn while living with them.

Roman laughed nervously, “Yeah, sometimes I come in early to help set up.”

“Lie.” Logan said. His eyes widened and he brought his hand to his mouth- not quite covering it, but looking like he wanted to. Virgil wondered what was up with Logan today.

Roman looked extremely uncomfortable, “Yeah, uh, well there’s never a bad time to start?” He said, his statement more of a question than anything else.

Everybody visibly relaxed when Patton chimed in, “Oh I think that’s a lovely idea, Roman,” He said, “We could help if you’d like? Or we could just watch you perform. From what I’ve heard around the house, you’re great.”

Roman didn’t particularly want to go and help set up, but flattery sure was the way to his heart, “Sure Pat. Hey, I might even be able to get you guys a discount. My boss is pretty cool.”

“Great! Logan, Virgil?” Patton asked.

“I can’t think of a reason why not.” Logan replied.

Virgil’s day had already been stupidly long and tiring: he’d opened up the shop at nine, then walked all the way to three, then the whole thing with the snake and the vet… Still, he didn’t want to be rude. Well, not properly a rude- a little teasing should be fine he reckoned.

“Listening to Roman sing for a whole three hours? I don’t know if I can deal with it for that long. I already hear the whole show through my wall.” He teased.

“Hey! I’m great! And plus, I only have to sing so loud to compete with your emo music. You know MyChemicalRomance broke up right?” Roman argued.

Virgil pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, “Don’t remind me.”

Logan coughed in the clear ‘Are you two done yet?’ way that he did very often. It probably wasn’t very good for his throat.

“…But yeah. Okay, fine I’ll come.” Virgil said, sparing Logan’s throat any further pain. He stood up, ready to leave, then remembered the snake on his arm, “Uh… What about Raman?”

Roman took a step back, “He absolutely cannot come to the restaurant.”

“Yeah, someone might mistake him for an actual noodle and eat him.” Virgil joked.

Patton looked horrified.

“I’m sure he can stay alone in the apartment for a few hours. He may stay in my room as it is the least hazardous, and I will leave the space heater on a low setting so that he is warm but there is low risk of fire.” Logan stuck a hand out to take the snake, who simply stated at him. He didn’t move until Patton reassured him (in English) that it was fine.

Logan carefully placed the injured snake on his bed, and placed the space heater- as promised- nearby. The snake quickly settled near his pillows (close to the heater). Content with this, Logan left the room, closing the door behind him.

During his short trip to his room, Roman and Virgil had left for the car. Patton waited behind, apartment keys and Logan’s favourite Milford coat in hand. Logan loved the coat as it made him feel like his favourite book character: Sherlock Holmes. Patton, who was rather short with dirty blond hair, looked rather like Watson too.

Watson offered Sherlock his coat, which he graciously accepted; despite the trip to and from the car being short, it was still very chilly. Logan assumed it was for that reason that Patton took Logan’s hand once they stepped out into the brisk evening air.

———-

Taglist: teehee

Chapter 1:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 5:

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Summary: tHerE’s a sNake oN mY rOoF

Warnings: snek, there actually wasn’t blood in the last chapter, but there is in this one (no detail, just mentioned), kinda heights

(chapter 1 & 2 linked at the bottom)

———-

Chapter 3- Snakes And Ladders

Getting onto the roof was surprisingly easy. The fire escape ran right outside of Patton’s window and led straight to the roof without any locks or alarms. Virgil hated how easily people could access their building- or their apartment. He made a mental note to make Patton get a lock for his window.

The fire escape itself was definitely not up to code: the fence was loose and not tall enough, it creaked as they walked and when a particularly strong gust of wind blew past Virgil could swear it swayed. He spent the whole time practically hugging the wall and telling Patton off for pretty much skipping up the steps.

It took Virgil much longer to get up to the roof, on account of the rickety fire escape and his constant desire to turn back. After he conquered the stairs (another 4 flights- almost as bad as the climb up to their apartment) there was still a ladder to climb. Granted, it was only 2 metres or so, but Virgil didn’t trust the workmanship of it if the fire escape stairs had been anything to go on.

With a lot of mental preperation, Virgil made it to the top where he found Patton holding the snake like a baby.

The snake was thin and roughly the length of Patton’s arm, a plain pale yellow colour. He quickly pulled Logan’s drawing out of his pocket and checked the snake for the tell-tale signs of a venomous snake. From what Virgil could see from Logan’s sketchy drawing and chicken-scratch annotations, it wasn’t venomous. But it could still be dangerous.

He ran across the empty roof to Patton, “Patton, come on!” Up close he saw there was blood on Patton’s cardigan. Had he been bitten?

“Come on? Where are we going?” Patton joked. When he saw Virgil’s worried face, he explained, “The snake’s injured. And he’s not venomous, I asked.”

“Snakes are notorious for lying,” he said, the snake hissed weakly at him, “But according to Logan’s drawing he’s fine. How bad’s he hurt?

Patton smiled softly, glad Virgil was on board to help, “I’m not sure, but he needs help. I’m sure Logan knows some first aid.” He started walking back to the fire escape.

“Logan? What about a vet or something?” Virgil followed Patton slowly, not anxious to go back down the fire escape that he’d only just barely got up.

“He needs help quickly. Roman’s the only one with a car and I don’t know if snakes are allowed on buses. He’s bleeding, he’s been here for hours and he’s really cold.” Patton said, bounding down the fire escape stairs.

Virgil momentarily forgot his worries about the unsafe structure and chased after Patton. He called out, “Snakes are cold blooded!”

Patton managed to bound down the fire escape and climb into the apartment so quickly, Virgil briefly wondered whether he had super speed too.

Considerably slower than Patton had managed to with a snake on his arm, Virgil scrambled through the window and fell onto Patton’s floor. He suddenly felt grateful that Patton’s room, unlike the other’s, was carpeted, otherwise his landing would’ve been even more uncomfortable.

Pat’s room was similar to Virgil’s, in that it was still cluttered with boxes Patton refused to unpack until he’d painted. However Patton’s room still had a more homely feel somehow. Virgil guessed that any place Patton lived would feel like a home for Virgil.

Virgil heard frantic knocking- Patton trying to get Logan, Virgil guessed. He regained his composure and joined Patton in the living room.

“He’s not here.” Patton said, defeated.

Virgil hated seeing Patton sad more than he hated stupidly pricey vet bills (something his family were very familiar with, with Dr Dolittle around). He grabbed his wallet from the coffee table in the lounge and checked his phone for the time. “Right, bus it is. There’s one in five minutes so if we rush we can- Roman!”

Patton turned to Virgil, “How can we-“ He spotted Roman by the door, “Oh! Roman! Hi!”

“Hey Patton, look at my nails- you’re holding a snake.” Roman deadpanned.

“Right, Princey, great timing. You’re driving us to the vet.” Virgil declared, marching over to Roman.

“Why-” Roman started.

“We’ll explain soon. Would you drive us kiddo, please?” Patton asked, snake in hand and puppy dog eyes employed.

Roman looked between Patton and the injured snake on his arm, “…Yeah, course Pat.”

———-

Taglist: *pink panther theme plays*

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Warnings: Snake, blood (not in detail but it’s mentioned), tell me if there’s anything else

(link to chapter 1 & 3 at the bottom)

—–

Chapter 2- Singing With The Birds

To Virgil’s surprise, three whole weeks past by with no incident- unless you counted the morning that Patton told a joke about something sciency that made Logan laugh so much he choked on his tea, which caused him to drop his mug, which caused Roman to run our of his room, his hair wrapped in a towel and wearing a red bath robe, brandishing a pool noodle as a weapon (though why he had a pool noodle in his room was beyond Virgil). No, Virgil would only class this as an incident if he’d not managed to get a picture, but his lock screen proved this not to be the case.

In the brief amount of time, all four men had managed to find jobs. Acting was Roman’s profession of choice, but the local theatre was already halfway through their rehearsals for the upcoming play (We Will Rock You) and no roles were left, so he’d have to wait a few months to persue that. Instead, he found a job as a singer in a small restaurant that had live music on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He only worked two or three of the nights per week, but the pay was alright and the tips were very generous most of the time.

Patton’s job surprised Virgil the most. A librarian wasn’t something he’d ever imagined Patton being. Pat always been insecure about his dyslexia, avoiding books and reading as much as he could, unless he was being read to by someone else. Virgil had vivid memories of Pat begging him to finish a story at 2am. Sure, he loved stories, but he hated reading. That’s why when Virgil visited Patton at work, he was utterly shocked to see Patton sitting in a circle of kids, reading to them. He did well for the most part, but whenever he was struggling, he’d call on one of the older children to help him out. The scene was so sickeningly sweet.

And Logan- well nobody knew what he did. He spent most of his time hauled up in his room, and would rush out of the house at random hours and be gone from any time between forty minutes and a day. When asked what he was doing, he simply responded “work”, and retreated back to continue that. It seemed to be the only subject he wouldn’t lecture everybody about. The lead theory about his job was Roman’s, who believed him to be a spy. It was ridiculous of course, but the others had no proof against the claim to disprove it.

Virgil briefly, when delivering the message from Roman that dinner was ready, caught a glimpse of the inside of Logan’s room. As he’d expected, it looked like a science lab more than a home. The space was very impersonal. His walls were stark white and his bedsheets and curtains a dark blue, bordering black. A large bookcase sat next to his bed, filled to the brim with books. It was all extremely neat and precise. Except the desk. The desk was full of paper, strewn around like it had been hit with a small tornado- something very familiar to Virgil. He didn’t get a good look at anything specific Logan had been working on though, which left the work a mystery still to him, Roman and Patton.

Virgil’s work was a lot less interesting than Logan’s, as a barista at the local Starbucks. He hated it. The pay wasn’t great, he hated coffee, he had long hours and had to deal with rude people all day which left him too socially exhausted to do anything after work except eat the dinner than Patton forced upon him on the days he was there.

What Virgil really didn’t want to see when he got home- exhausted and in serious need of a nap- was a bunch of birds in the apartment, chirping at his brother, and his brother chirping back. Virgil really couldn’t deal with this today.

“Patton! What the hell?” Virgil scolded, quickly closing the door behind him, “What if Roman had come home, or Logan? How could you possibly explain this?”

“Hey, bad day at work?” Patton asked. He chirped something at the birds. They chirped back enthusiastically and flew through Roman’s room and out the window. Virgil relaxed a tiny bit.

Patton chuckled and put his arms up in defence, his attempt to change the subject clearly thwarted, “It’s okay, they’re friends of Margaret. Roman left for a manicure ten minutes ago, and Logan’s busy in his room.”

Virgil dropped his voice to a loud whisper, moving closer to Patton so he could hear him, “He’s inside the apartment?! What if he’d seen you? Or heard you?” Virgil’s mind was racing with all the ways that it could’ve possibly gone wrong.

“You know Logan, he doesn’t stop work for anything-” Patton started. Virgil internally screamed.

Suddenly Logan’s door swung open, “Is everyone alright? I heard yelling, and… Chirping?”

“Sorry we disturbed you, Lo, we’ll try keep it down.” Patton promised.

“Oh, it’s fine, I was just checking everybody was alright, and the chirping…?” Logan asked slowly. Patton and Virgil looked worriedly between each other. Logan continued, “Were you watching a nature documentary?”

Virgil visibly relaxed. He didn’t suspect anything.

“Actually, it was the sound of me tweeting.” Patton laughed. Virgil’s shoulders tensed. Whhhhy?

“Uh yeah, Patton has a custom sound when he tweets. It’s a bird sound because he’s tweeting.” Virgil recovered, sealing the deal with a completely unbelievable fake laugh. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Logan furrowed his eyebrows. There was no way he was buying it.

“Right. I must return to my work. If you do end up watching a nature documentary, please call me, the Discovery Channel is doing an intriguing piece on the kookaburra.” He said, walking back to his room. Virgil couldn’t believe he’d bought it. Had he bought it?

As soon as Logan was out of earshot, Virgil whispered, “How did he even hear us, we were whispering when he came out. Jeez, it’s like he’s got super hearing or something.” Patton gasped.

Virgil quickly said, “No. I was kidding. No.”

Patton pouted.

“Okay, I’m going to my room.” Virgil said, desperately needing a nap.

“Okay!” Patton agreed.

Virgil walked into his room, dodging the boxes be still hadn’t had the time to unpack, and fell onto his bed.

Patton followed and sat on the edge, “So, Margaret sent Michael to find-“ Virgil groaned and rolled into his back, “-the local birds that aren’t migrating this year, their friend has a hurt wing and they’re staying on our roof, so that we could meet them. She also wants to visit, as soon as she can get her kids to behave well enough to be this far into the city.” Patton finally paused to take a breath.

“Is Margaret the one that sat on my window and woke me up every morning?” Virgil asked.

“Yep!” Patton twirled himself around on the desk chair.

“And she had kids?”

“Yeah, how could you forget? We stayed up all night waiting for her eggs to hatch.” Patton said. The memory came flooding back to Virgil.

“Sorry, my brain’s a bit…” He trailed off, unsure what word would best describe the mental haze that seemed to lurk in his brain the past few days.

“Foggy? Cloudy? Misty?” Patton suggested. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Do you think it’s because you haven’t been using-”

“You were saying about the birds.” Virgil interjected, hoping his subject change would go unnoticed. To his joy, it did.

“Right! So Michael also told the birds that they can come to us with any problems they have-“

Virgil mumbled, “Great.”

Patton ignored him, “-and so they came to ask for help.”

Virgil sighed, there was no way he was going to get a peaceful night. He sat up in his bed, “Fine. What’s the problem?”

“There’s a snake trying to take over their habitat.” Patton said calmly.

“That’s snakey.”

Patton’s head shot up, Virgil had made a pun!

Virgil lay back down in his bed, “Forget I said that. What exactly do the birds want us to do?” He asked, already knowing the answer but praying for another one.

Patton offered no such solution, “They want us to talk to the snake and ask him to move.”

“Pat, come on, it could be dangerous. What if it’s poisonous? What if it attacks” Virgil said as his brain supplied him with all the possible solutions for what could go wrong. Gosh, he loved being him.

“Then you’ll save us.” Patton said with one hundred per cent certainty. Virgil wasn’t so sure.

“Snakes can strike really quickly, what if I’m too slow or it bites me first and then you. Nobody would find us.” He said solemnly.

“Why don’t we ask Logan about poisonous snakes?“ Patton asked.

Virgil wanted to say, ‘Are you crazy?’, then realised that would be completely insensitive. He felt bad for even thinking it. Instead he settled for, “That’s too conspicuous, Pat.”

-

Virgil must’ve spent too long thinking about what he was going to say, because before he could talk Patton down, he was gone.

Virgil heard the sound of knocking and ran out of his room. Logan opened his door.

“Have you decided to watch a documentary?” Logan asked.

“Aw, not yet, sorry,” Patton said. Logan’s face dropped a little, “But we were wondering if you could tell us anything about how to tell if a snake is poisonous or not.”

Logan sighed, “Well I assume that you mean venomous. Poison is ingested, unless you plan to eat the snake, which is, of course, delicacy in some cultures,” Virgil and Patton both looked disgusted. Logan guessed that this meant they wanted to know about venomous snakes, “Alright then. You can usually identify them by the shape of their head. Venomous snakes tend to have broader heads and skinnier necks. Their snouts are also pointier. If you can get closer to the snake, which I wouldn’t recommend unless you are sure it is not dangerous, you will see that they have heat sensitive pads and their eyes are elliptical rather than circular.”

Patton looked back at Virgil where he leant on his bedroom doorframe. He shrugged.

“Uh, could you possibly draw that please?” Patton asked.

Logan nodded, “I suppose. I am not an excellent artist but I can probably show you the basic ideas.” He walked into his room to retrieve some paper and a pen. While he routed through his disaster of a desk, he said, “May I ask why you’re inquiring bout venomous snakes?”

Patton laughed nervously, “Well a little birdy told me that there was a snake on our roof.”

Virgil ignored pun. “On the roof? How did it get up there?!” He exclaimed.

“Large birds of prey often eat snakes. Perhaps this one escaped its captor.” Logan suggested. Finally he found some paper. He walked out of his room and closed the door.

“If there is indeed a snake on the roof like your confidant said, the proper protocol would be to contact the landlord. Then he may contact an exterminator if that is necessary.” Logan said, but he started drawing a diagram of a venomous snake anyway.

Virgil knew Patton would decline, he hated exterminators with a passion. It was one of the very few things he actually hated.

Just as Virgil had had known he would, Patton declined.

“I don’t want to bother them unless we have to.” He said, shaking his head. Virgil doubted he’d call in the authorities even if the snake bit him. His compassion was really going to be his downfall.

Logan considered for a moment, “Alright,” he agreed, “But I beg you remember that even non-venomous snakes can bite. I think it would be best if I went with you so that I could identify it or remove it. ”

Finally Virgil piped into the conversation, worried that Patton would accept Logan’s offer. As much as he wanted an expert- or whatever Logan was- to identify the snake, he couldn’t risk Patton’s cover being blown.

“No thanks. We don’t want to bother you working. I’m sure your drawing will be fine, and I’m sure I can remove the snake without being bitten.” He said.

Logan sighed. “If you’re sure.” He said, handing his drawing to Patton. Virgil walked next to him to see the drawing. Logan really hadn’t been being modest when he said he wasn’t a great artist.

“Wow Logan, this is really…” Patton tried to think of a suitable compliment about the drawing.

“You don’t have to try and compliment me. I am aware that my drawing skills are subpar and can tell when you are lying.” Logan said. Virgil really hoped the last bit wasn’t true.

“…Helpful!” Patton beamed.

Logan smiled slightly, then coughed and reclaimed his usual stoic expression.

“Thank you.” He said, pushing his glasses back up onto his nose.

Virgil rolled his eyes, “Right well we best be off- dangerously high roofs to be on, possibly venomous snakes to extract, ya know.”

“I best get back to my work.” Logan said, turning back towards his room. He paused, “Text if you need me.” He closed his door.

“So how are we going to get onto the roof then?”

———-

Taglist: lmaoooo as if

Chapter 1:

Chapter 3:

(^idk how to link stuff in the nice, wordy way)

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That’s Brewing

Pairings: Prinxiety, Logicality (probs more I haven’t planned yet lol)

Warnings: None? Tell me if there are some I didn’t think of

Note: This is a fic I’ve already posted to ao3 (keyboardsmashed33) but I’ve decided to post it here because ?? I have a new side-blog about the story (my-keyboard-did-it-not-me)

Superpower! Roommate! au regards

Chapter summary: Virgil and Patton Summers move into a new apartment with Logan Barry and Roman King.

—–

Chapter 1- Settling In

“Have you got everything?” Virgil’s aunt asked, unpacking the last box from the car.

“Yep, think so!” Patton said cheerfully. Virgil wasn’t so sure.

Patton picked up the first few boxes, Virgil following his example, and started moving towards the apartment building before Virgil exclaimed, “Wait!”

He quickly scanned the boxes again, “What was it Lerman asked us to bring?”

“Logan,” Patton corrected, “Asked us to bring the-” He quickly checked his text messages from his new roommate, “-kitchen supplies.”

Virgil quietly cursed.

“We forgot the only thing our new roommate asked us to bring. He leased the apartment we’re going to be staying in and we forgot the only things he asked us to bring. God, we have to live with him for how long? He’s gonna think we’re lazy or-”

“Virgil! Sweetie,“ His aunt interrupted, "Look what you’re carrying.”

Virgil did as his aunt suggested and found, surely enough, he was carrying a big container labelled “cookery stuff” in his own rushed handwriting.

“Oh.”

His aunt chuckled, “Alright now that that’s sorted, you boys had best start taking these boxes up and meet your new roommates. I’ll wait here and join you with the last few boxes in a minute.”

Virgil and Patton agreed and each carried a few boxes to the elevator in their apartment building. Despite their apartment being on the fifth floor, and Virgil having no athletic ability, Virgil decided it was safest if he took the stairs. Who knew what could go wrong in an elevator. He left his boxes with Patton, who was practically buzzing with excitement to meet his new roommate whom he had been texting for the past two weeks, and went back to the car to fetch a few more boxes, where he found his aunt chatting with an unquizzically attractive guy.

The guy towered above Virgil’s aunt, which in all fairness, wasn’t difficult since she stood at a mere 5ft. But the guy was still tall- Virgil estimated he was roughly 6ft tall, making him a whole 6 inches taller than himself. He was well built too, darn him, with the body of a jock.

He simply wore a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and skinny black jeans (that, unlike Virgil’s, had no tears in them), and finally a red scarf to tie the outfit together. Despite the scarf, Virgil thought the guy’s outfit was completely innapropriate for the chilly October weather that had Virgil shivering in his thick black hoodie. The air grew warm around Virgil as he approached.

When Virgil’s aunt saw him coming, she waved, causing the other man to turn around. Virgil’s jaw dropped. He looked like a sculpture- with prominent yet warm and soft features that had to be a result of make-up, because nobody could be that naturally beautiful in Virgil’s opinion.

His auburn hair was styled back neatly, except from one stray hair that stubbornly stuck up which Virgil found rather endearing. The man’s eyes were a beautiful and rich chocolate colour (and Virgil sure had a sweet-tooth).

Virgil found his mouth agape and quickly closed it. He was suddenly very grateful that he’d remembered to put on foundation that morning, otherwise his blush would be painfully obvious. Get a grip, he told himself.

Virgil’s aunt smiled knowingly. “Virgil! This lovely gentleman is Roman. He saw me with all these boxes and offered to help, it turns out he’s your other roommate!”

Virgil’s eyes widened in shock. This handsome stranger that Virgil totally was not crushing on, was his new roommate. Oh, he knew he was screwed right then.

Roman extended his hand to Virgil, “Roman King. Nice to meet you.” He smiled.

Virgil gulped and shook his hand, “I’m Virgil- uh- Virgil Summers. Nice to meet you too.” He stammered. Great, you’ve been here one minute and already made a fool of yourself, he scolded himself.

Roman let go of his hand, much to Virgil’s dismay. He noted, “You’re hot.” His smile fell as he tried to correct himself, “I mean warm. Your hand is really hot.”

Virgil was pleased to see that Roman’s face was as red as his hair. He laughed, “Thanks I guess, but you’re probably just freezing because you’re wearing only a shirt in the middle of fall.”

Roman brought his hands to his face in mock annoyance, “It’s fashionable. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

Virgil raised his eyebrow. “Oh yeah, Prince?”

“King.” He corrected.

Virgil’s aunt, who’d been silently watching this back and forth, cleared her throat. The two gentlemen stopped arguing and faced her.

“Oh no, don’t let me stop you two.” She said. The two looked at each other briefly but remained silent. “Oh alright then, why don’t you two take some boxes up then? You can continue while you walk.”

The pair agreed and walked to the elevator together, exchanging awkward smiles, and small talk, when they ran right into Patton.

“Oh Virgil! Who’s this?” Patton asked, trying to get a good look at Roman whose face was hidden behind the three boxes he was carrying (like a show off, Virgil thought).

“Pat, this is Roman Queen. Roman, this is my brother Patton.” Virgil gestured at them with his head, since his hands were full.

“It’s Roman King, but I actually am a queen so you didn’t offend me.” Roman quipped.

“It’s great to meet you! Are you our new roommate or just a kind stranger?” Patton asked.

“I am indeed your roommate, I would shake your hand but…”

“Oh of course! I can take those up in the lift and you two can go get the rest of the boxes?” Patton offered. Virgil agreed.

The elevator was already waiting when they got there.

“Are you sure you can take all these by yourself?” Roman asked when the elevator was stocked with boxes, Patton standing in the centre.

“Well, I am a little boxed in, aren’t I?” Patton joked.

Roman laughed And Virgil groaned that he shouldn’t encourage him.

“But anyway, I’ll be fine, Logan said he was happy to assist me. He’s unpacking in the apartment.” He continued.

“Kay, well there are only a few more boxes anyway so we can take them up ourselves.”

Patton nodded. “Tell Aunt Maria I’ll call her tonight.”

“’Course.”

Roman and Virgil made their way back to the car where they discovered that what they’d thought was only few boxes, turned out to be another seven, of which Roman took four. He sat on the curb while Virgil and his aunt said their goodbyes.

“Message me whenever and be careful- especially because of, you know…” Maria trailed off.

“Yeah, yeah, I will.” Virgil promised, picking up the remaining two boxes. Roman stood from the curb.

“Roman, you’ve got my number in case this one doesn’t check in, you can free to message any time for a chat too.” Maria said. Virgil shot a strange look at Roman who simply smiled in response.

“Bye! Té amo!” She called out as they walked away.

“You too!” Virgil shouted back, a little quieter.

“¿Hablas Español?” Roman asked.

“Huh? Oh right, yeah no. Not really. Maria does. I just know a few phrases.” Virgil replied. He opened the door for Roman, who he doubted could even see with all the boxes he was carrying. A hypothesis that was proven correct when Roman walked straight into the elevator door. “Well done.” Virgil sneered.

Roman put down what he was carrying and glared at Virgil, pressing the button, and not breaking eye contact until the elevator arrived. When it arrived, Roman moved his boxes inside and took Virgil’s too, stepping into the elevator. He moved to make space for Virgil who looked nervously inside.

“I know it’s a bit cramped but I don’t bite, Dr Gloom. Well, not usually.” He laughed. Virgil remained motionless.

“You go on up, I don’t trust elevators.” Virgil shrugged. Roman nodded and picked up a box; “What are you doing?” Virgil asked.

Roman passed him a box. “You don’t like elevators so we’ll walk up the stairs, unless you can teleport?”

“I can walk up some stairs by myself.” Virgil said pointedly, handing the box back to Roman.

“I’m sure you can, even with those short legs,” He looked down at Virgil, who was only 5’6” (a perfectly reasonable height, Virgil thought, Roman was just unusually tall), “But you need not.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “God, you really are just a Disney prince in training, aren’t you? Fine, I’ll text Pat to get the boxes.” He said, texting while he spoke. “Or you could, you know, just text my aunt since you got her number for some reason.”

Patton replied almost immediately, ‘Sure thing!’.

Virgil clicked floor seven on the elevator and moved out before the doors closed him in.

Roman raised his arms in defence, “Hey, she gave my her number, not the other way round. She just wants to check on you.”

Virgil slid his phone into his pocket. He walked next to Roman, on the inside of the wall, so that Roman would have to walk further. “You could’ve only spoken to her for like two minutes before I came out!”

“Ah, coming out, how difficult. Anyway, I’m very charming.” First he called himself a queen, then a coming out joke? This guy was surely gay, Virgil reckoned (or hoped).

He waved the coming out joke away, “Right, Prince Charming, I forgot.”

Roman looked delighted, “Why thank you!” He beamed.

They walked in an (awkward? Virgil wasn’t sure) silence for a few seconds. Anxious to fill the silence, Virgil coughed, then asked “So, uh, what’s Logan like?”

Roman put his hands up in the universal ‘I don’t know’, “Dunno, haven’t met him yet. I got here just after you. My stuff’s coming in a few hours, I just wanted t get here early and meet the new roomies.” He explained.

“Weird, but sure.” Virgil panted, “Why are there so may stairs?”

“What, your short legs tired, Fall Short Boy?” Roman teased.

“Bad insult, good reference, challenge accepted.” Virgil sprinted up the stairs. He heard Roman exclaim something along the lines of ‘Unfair!’ and race after him.

Virgil was easily outmatched. Roman reached their apartment while Virgil was still in the fourth floor hall, moaning about his loss and unfair advantages Roman had despite the fact that nobody could hear him. He’d given up on running as soon as Roman passed him, walking the rest of the way and enjoying the brief silence which he felt was going to be a rare occurrence with both Patton and Roman around, and who knew what Logan was like?

When he finally made it to the apartment, he found the door ajar. So much for Roman’s princely manners then, shouldn’t he be escorting Virgil in? Not like Virgil minded, of course.

Inside the apartment were the sounds of gentle conversation and movement- then suddenly the sound of something smashing. Virgil rushed inside.

“What happened?” Virgil asked at the same time as Patton said, “It’s okay!”

A man, whom Virgil assumed was Logan, turned to face him. He wore jeans, a black button up t-shirt, a dark blue tie and glasses almost identical to Patton’s.

Logan smoothed his pristinely slicked back medium-brown hair into place and pushed his glasses further up on his nose,

“Hello, I am Logan Barry, your new roommate. The noise you just heard was a plate smashing which would be the result of Patton and Roman’s inefficient unpacking method.“

Virgil looked at Logan cautiously, he seemed nice enough- a little direct, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“Virgil Summers.” He replied.

Roman glanced at Virgil, nodding slightly, but addressed Logan, "It would actually be very efficient if I was working with someone that could catch- no offence Patton.”

Patton swept his hand through the air like he was literally brushing off the comment.

“Oh, no worries, it’s true.” He agreed.

“For safety reasons, I think it would be wise if somebody swept up the plate shards.” Logan reasoned.

"I’ll do it!” Patton volunteered, searching through the cleaning boxes for a dustpan and brush. It didn’t take long, since there was only one but he still didn’t find it, “Oh dear, I think we’ve forgotten the dustpan and brush.”

“Let me check.” Roman said, rooting through the boxes. “Uh, what colour is it?” He asked.

“Ooh, it’s a lovely dark blue.” Patton replied.

Roman pulled out a blue dustpan and brush, “Aha! A new set of eyes always helps.” He knelt and swept up the plate fragments, Logan occasionally pointed at a piece he missed and Virgil tried to suppress his snickering as Roman imitated Logan when he turned his back.

By 8pm, most of the apartment was ready, due to Logan’s incessant nagging that it would be optimal if they completely unpacked that same day. Boxes were unpacked and stacked in a corner in the family room which was otherwise empty until Roman’s things were to arrive.

The only messy parts of the apartment were the rooms, as everyone, other than Logan, had decided to leave theirs (mostly) alone until they could paint them- only putting duvets on the beds that had been left by the old owners, or supplied by the landlord, Virgil wasn’t sure.

The rooms were quickly claimed: Logan, who had arrived first and already picked the room, chose the room with the best view for stargazing; Roman picking the largest room which he measured with a measuring tape he found in one of Logan’s boxes; Virgil opting for room closest to the kitchen, which unfortunately shared a wall with Roman who had blasted Disney songs on his phone while unpacking and Patton subsequently moving into the second smallest room that, to his delight, was the easiest to access the main room (or family room as he liked to call it).

Virgil’s room was one of the messiest due to Logan’s insanely fast organisation skills and the fact that Roman didn’t have anything to put in his room yet. Virgil’s bed, which was a simple black wooden bed, took up a good portion of the room. It was a snug fit with a wardrobe and inbuilt desk, as well as Virgil’s few packed up belongings, but Virgil didn’t care.

Virgil sat on his bed, tired from the excessive amounts of exercise and socialization he’d done in the last few hours. He’d managed to avoid too much, ducking into his room as soon as he felt like he’d done enough not to feel guilty about not helping.

All Virgil really wanted to do after a long day was rest. However, fate is a cruel thing. And fate decided he wasn’t allowed to rest. As soon as he thought his job unpacking was done, he heard a car horn and then a knock on his door.

Begrudgingly, he got out of bed. He manoeuvred the boxes in his room and opened the door to find Patton, looking as bubbly and energised as ever. Virgil had no idea how he did it.

“What?” Virgil yawned.

“Roman’s stuff’s here!” Patton said. He was rolling on the balls of his feet, ready to run and help Roman as soon as possible. Virgil however, was missing the warm spot on his bed.

“So?” He leaned against the doorframe, hoping Patton would just drop the subject and leave him be but if previous experience meant anything, he’d have no such luck.

“Oh, don’t be a couch potato, come help us get the couch, please?” He asked hopefully, dragging out the please and launching into his signature irresistible puppy-dog eyes.

"I can’t be a couch potato if there’s no couch?” Virgil had meant it as a criticism to Patton’s- was it even a pun?- but his heart wasn’t in it.

“Exactly!” Patton exclaimed, “Plus Roman said he’d buy us all dinner if we helped.”

“You had me at free dinner.” Virgil’s stomach rumbled in agreement.

—–

Taglist: ~nobody~ xoxo

(also does anyone wanna tell me how to link chapters or do anything at all?????????? pls)