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Yay! I love your podfics. Hope to listen this weekend!

I don’t usually make podfic of stories that other people have done, but @nonbinary-octopus requested this one in particular ^w^

From @snowdice’s amazing story!

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Pasta, Vodka, and The Last Truce [Part 3/3] (Cuffed Universe)

Relationships: Remus/Virgil/Logan

Characters: Remus, Virgil, Logan

Summary: Remus and Logan decide to call a truce to kidnap take Virgil out for a birthday celebration.

Part 1 Part 2

Notes: Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault (in the past), Alcohol, Angst, Complicated Relationships

This is a Cuffed Universe fic.

Previous fics in this series:

Tea, Cookies, and Handcuffs

Matboards and Subway Sandwiches

Espionage and Iced Coffee

Popcorn and Podcasts

Rats, Pizza, and Supply Closets

Kisses and Thai Noodle Leftovers

Chocolate, Journals, and Taco Bell

Road Trips, Chicken Parmesan, and Handcuffs: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Tea: Just Tea

Extras:

Moving Day

Police Statements

Virgil’s Many Jobs: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Logan woke up with a severe headache and a dry throat. Despite having lived in many places over the past few years (and even more in the past few months), he knew instantly and without opening his eyes that this was not any place he would have chosen as a temporary base. The room smelled fruity. It was an artificial fruity, almost like fruit loops.

He squinted open his eyes, his brain muddled. He was staring at a light green ceiling. It was late morning judging by the angle at which the sunlight hit the wall across from him. This was much later than he normally slept. His phone had an alarm on it for 5:45am every morning, but he had no idea where his phone was. It had been in his back pants pocket the last he’d known, but upon inspection of his person, he found he wasn’t wearing pants. He was wearing his shirt and underwear still, but his shoes were also missing, and his tie had been pulled out of his collar. He saw a blur of blue fabric next to his own hand. That was the tie.

His glasses were off, but he saw the glint of them on a nearby nightstand. He reached over and grabbed them, putting them on his face.

As he was taking in the room with sharper vison, he heard footsteps. He sat up to watch the bedroom door open.

There was a soft curse. “Diesel Fuel, sweetheart, no,” Remus’s voice quietly said, as the man shouldered open the door, but this ‘Diesel Fuel’ did not listen, hopping lithely over the foot trying to bar her entrance to the room. The cat bounded over and jumped onto the bed next to Logan.

Remus pushed open the door the rest of the way and spotted Logan sitting up in the bed. Unlike Logan, he was fully dressed. He was also sporting a tray with breakfast dishes on it. “Oh,” he said. “Hey.”

Logan eyed him, unsure.

“We extended the truce,” he said at Logan’s look. “Though I would not be surprised if you don’t remember that.”

“I’m hungover,” Logan concluded.

“Yeah,” Remus confirmed, his lip turning up at the side. “I didn’t think leaving you alone was the most responsible thing, so I brought you back to my place.”

His place. In theory Logan knew where Remus lived. He’d even gone so far as to look up pictures of the apartment online, but he didn’t recognize the room he was in or remember any green ones. Had Remus painted?

The cat made a sound and rubbed up against Logan’s arm. He reached over to pat her idly.

“I made you breakfast,” Remus said.

“I can see that.”

Remus titled his head at him, eyes sharp in a way that meant he was seeing more about Logan than Logan had wanted. “We didn’t have sex, if you were wondering,” he said casually. He walked over to place the tray on the nightstand next to Logan. “You did take your pants off before crawling into bed, but to be honest it was the least sexy pants removal I’ve seen an adult human perform in my life. You then passed out immediately and I slept on the couch.” He caught the cat as it attempted to lunge towards the bacon.

A quick mental check of himself did not indicate any of that was a lie. Logan leaned over slightly to spot his pants crumpled on the ground beside the bed.

He looked back up at Remus. “Diesel Fuel?” he asked.

“Ah yes,” Remus said with a grin. He held the cat out in front of himself to show her to Logan. The cat must be extremely docile to accept such a hold. “This is my child.”

“Why would you name your cat Diesel Fuel?”

Remus shrugged. “It fit.”

To be fair, the cat was the correct coloring. Its main body was mostly grey, but its face and paws were dark black almost as if it had dipped them into black ash. So, perhaps one could argue she looked like she’d been dunked in (dirty) diesel fuel. Still, it was not a name most would come up with for their pet.

Logan reached over for the coffee mug, not bothering with cream and sugar this morning. He just needed caffeine.

“You should eat too,” Remus said. The cat was rubbing its cheek against Remus’s and Remus was returning the gesture absently. “I made you my patented hangover breakfast minus the ketchup noodles.”

“Ketchup noodles?”

“I make ramen, but instead of serving it with the broth I drain the water and then add ketchup and the spice packets.”

“Why would you do that?”

Remus shrugged. “Easier to shovel into my mouth.”

Logan rolled his eyes. He glanced at the tray of food. There was enough for at least three people. There was a large stack of bacon (probably an entire pack) as well as sausage, half a loaf worth of toast, half a dozen eggs, fruit, a stack of pancakes, and French toast.

“I can’t eat all that,” Logan said, moving to curl his legs up under him. (He kept the sheet carefully over his lap.) Then he patted the bed where his legs had been. “Here, eat with me.”

Remus smiled. “Okay,” he agreed, but then he turned his attention to Diesel Fuel. “But Little Miss is going to have to be locked out of the bedroom.”

The cat seemed to almost understand what was being said, because she mewed her complaint.

“I’ll be back,” he told Logan.

He left with the cat and returned with a cup of coffee for himself, shutting the door behind him. In the brief time he was gone, Logan grabbed his pants and slipped them on, finding his dead phone in the pocket.

It turned out Remus was a decent cook when it came to breakfast food. He used a bit more cinnamon on his French toast than Logan would have, but everything tasted good. The man had also, blessedly, included aspirin on the breakfast tray, and Logan was feeling much better by the time he’d finished eating.

Remus picked at the food long past when Logan was done. He popped a grape into his mouth and glanced at Logan. “Do you… remember everything we talked about at the park? In particular, the stuff about your… sexual history?” he asked.

Logan hesitated, but answered truthfully, “Yes, I do.”

“Okay, good,” Remus said awkwardly. “We don’t have to talk about it, but I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. Since you forgot some stuff later.”

Logan nodded. “Is there more coffee?” he asked.

“There’s a whole pot,” Remus said. “I assume you’re done eating. I’ll take the tray to the kitchen and grab us both another cup.”

“Sure,” Logan agreed.

Remus did not bother to leave the door closed when going to the kitchen and the cat instantly slipped back in and was up on the bed next to Logan before Remus’s footsteps disappeared down the hall.

“Hello,” he said to the cat. She purred and leaned into his touch as he scratched her head. Logan had honestly not pegged Remus as a cat person. Maybe a dog person with how much energy he had, but really, he wouldn’t have pegged him as a pet person at all. Yet, the cat was meticulously groomed and had colorful claw caps to keep her from scratching. She was also clearly very well socialized.

She had settled into his lap by the time Remus returned with the coffee.

“Sorry,” Remus said indicating the cat. “She’s a bit of a cuddler.”

Logan shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

Remus sat and reached over to scratch the cat’s ear. “Did you ever have pets?” he asked.

“No,” Logan sighed. “Dad loved cats, but he was allergic, so we couldn’t have any in the house permanently.”

“Dogs?”

“We thought about it,” Logan replied. “Dad owned his own business, so was usually a bit too busy to want one. He promised I could pick one out the summer between middle and high school, since by then I could care for it mostly by myself, but that… never happened.”

He was surprised at himself for saying as that much, but he supposed once you spilled your biggest secret to someone, telling them smaller things was not as hard. It was, however, still dangerous. He had come to trust Remus with a lot of things, perhaps more than he should considering their situation.

Remus didn’t push on the subject, but he surely catalogued the new information about Logan’s identity. “And as an adult you were too busy running around the country being pursued by the government,” he concluded, his tone light.

And other entities, Logan thought, but was smart enough not to say. “Yes,” he agreed. And he really had been running all over the country in the last few months. Ever since he’d managed to get his hands on the Cuttler files, he’d been going nonstop. He’d burned 4 long standing identities, had been in each state at least twice other than Hawwii, and was mentally and physically exhausted, but it was worth it. All of the dominos had been put into place; some of them had already started toppling. Now he just needed to go to ground until the dust settled.

“Maybe you could get one in your ‘retirement’ or whatever you’re planning to do.”

Logan’s eyes flickered to Remus and then to the cat. “Maybe,” he agreed.

Remus opened his mouth to say something, but Logan cut him off.

“I believe interrogating me about my evil plans would violate the terms of the truce,” he said mildly.

“How would you know?” Remus asked, eyebrows raised. “You were a vodka bottle deep when the terms were laid out.”

“And I’m sure you took full advantage of that by changing the usual terms of our truces,” Logan said blandly as he rolled his eyes.

Remus grinned at him and didn’t argue or push more on the topic of what Logan had been doing the past 6 months.

Instead, they talked about banal thing as they drank their coffee. Logan mostly let Remus lead the conversation. He spoke about various movies and television shows he’d watched recently. It was nice; Logan hadn’t had a normal conversation with anyone in months.

They ended up eventually moving to Remus’s living room, because Remus wanted to show him a horror anthology he’d been watching. The forwent lunch after the very late, very large breakfast, but ended up ordering a pizza for dinner.

It wasn’t until it was almost 11pm that Logan finally realized just how long he’d stayed. “I should probably go,” he said. The movie they’d been watching was paused on the television screen and Remus had just returned from the bathroom.

“Right,” Remus agreed, but then paused. “Although it is kind of late.” He looked at Logan with something unidentifiable in his eyes. “We could extend the truce again,” he suggested, “but I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.”

Logan thought about it for a moment, but then nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. “We’ll extend it through tomorrow.”

Remus did sleep in his own bed that night, but Logan ended up accidentally falling asleep there as well after they’d moved to watching Netflix in bed.

They spent the next day together in Remus’s apartment as well, and, at the end of that day, Remus made the suggestion to extend the truce again. Logan accepted.

And then that same thing happened again. And again. Until eventually, they stopped saying it.

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I am once again writing something with Diesel Fuel and I am once again bringing up this picture. I love her.

@carolofthebell​ This is so great! Thank you for the submission!

Look at the baby go! You jump those universes Diesel Fuel the cat! You drew her exactly as I imagined! She is such an adorable baby!!

(Hmm… since she’s already dimensional hopping… Labeled Remus with a cat anybody? XD)

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11/3/2024 - Happy Logan Appreciation Day!

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Thomas: This is my son Logan.

Helen: This is my son Patton.

Denknis looking around before pulling Virgil out of the compost bin: Guess this ones mine now.

See that's about what it was supposed to be originally since Deknis is meant to be a mentor to Virgil, but then throughout Little Kestrel everyone kept pushing the remind-Thomas-of-his-dead-husband button and now Virgil has become Thomas's kid and the gardener is just here. XD

To be fair, I think Thomas especially was a young single parent (and I suppose Helen was too for that matter) and Deknis has, like, 9 grandchildren at this point, so I guess it makes sense he somehow got involved.

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Now that Little Kestrel is done, I do want to mention something that I love (and find a bit funny) and that is the weird group parenting situation going on.

*Sometime in the past*

Thomas: Hey, I know I'm the king, but your kid and my kid are best friends, and also I'm a grieving single father. Can we, like, coordinate the parenting thing sometimes?

Helen: Yeah, that's fair. They do seem to get into trouble with each other more often than not. We may as well discipline them together too. So, yeah, let's agree to group parent them.

Thomas: Cool. And also we should include the gardener.

Helen: Well, yes, of course. The gardener goes without saying.

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Little Kestrel (Epilogue) [Birds of Different Feathers Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan & Patton & Virgil (future Virgil/Patton but not in this story)

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton, Virgil

Appear: Thomas

Mentioned: Janus

Summary:

It was supposed to be a quick job either way. Either Virgil would assassinate King Thomas of Prijaznia or he’d be caught and get executed. Yet, when Virgil gets the wrong bedroom and gets caught by Prince Logan and his future royal advisor, Patton, the job ends up getting way more complicated for the 14-year-old. He also ends up sleeping in a (actually pretty comfortable) closet for a few weeks…

Notes: Implied/referenced child abuse, assassination attempt, knives, torture mentioned, captivity, teenagers being really dumb, sexual coercion of minors implied, a minor offering sexual favors, fire, minor character death

This is a prequel to Kill Dear. I wrote it 100 words at a time on my blog, but this is the edited version. If you want to see how it was crafted (and possibly some future content), look at the tag proofread stories.

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10Part 11Part 12Part 13Part 14Part 15Part 16Part 17Part 18Part 19Part 20Part 21Part 22Part 23Part 24Part 25Part 26Part 27Part 28Part 29Part 30Part 31Part 32Part 33Part 34Part 35Part 36Part 37Part 38Part 39Part 40Part 41Part 42Part 43Part 44Part 45Part 46Part 47Part 48Part 49Part 50Part 51Part 52 Part 53 Part 54 Part 55 Part 56 Part 57 Part 58 Part 59

“Do you think they’ll light your trees on fire this year?” an amused (but slightly concerned) voice asked from behind Jeffers. Jeffers ran a finger over the empty thumb of his slightly dirty gardening gloves while watching the two boys. They were currently leaning over an unlit lantern and various “supplies.” In truth, he’d stopped his own work to watch the two boys out of the very concern the king had just vocalized.

“Virgil helped me fertilize that tree a week ago,” Jeffers replied. “So, I would hope he exercises some caution.”

“Virgil likes fire though,” Thomas pointed out.

Jeffers sighed. “That he does.” He tilted his head towards Thomas. “You did confiscate the fire knife again after last week, yes?”

“I did,” Thomas confirmed, “but that means very little. Even burying that thing with a corpse did not dissuade him.”

As he spoke, a sudden spark of light flew from where the boys were working. A whining sound and then pop sounded as the spark exploded into 10 pieces, raining down colorful light. Luckily, the sparks burned up before hitting the ground (or the tree).

“Boys, if you set anything on fire, you will be grounded from the festival,” Thomas called in a booming voice. Both boys jumped. Jeffers imagined Logan hadn’t even known he was there. (Virgil certainly had, but he’d still jumped. “For the second year in a row in Logan’s case.”

“They’re not flammable!” was the claim from Logan.

“I don’t believe you,” Thomas called back.

The boys ignored this, turning back to their experiment.

“We should have kept them grounded,” Thomas muttered.

Despite Thomas’s original decision to ground Patton and Logan until their 50s (and Helen’s push to keep them grounded until Thomas, Helen, and Jeffers himself were all dead and couldn’t enforce it anymore), the boys had only been truly grounded for two months after Thomas had found out the truth of Virgil’s origins. (Though there were still jokes they were still technically grounded.) That did, however, mean that Patton and Logan had been grounded from most of the Lantern Festival the year before.

Logan, at least, seemed to be trying to make up for lost time this year (explosively). Jeffers did worry about where Patton was slightly, but honestly Patton without Logan or Virgil tended to be much less destructive in his hijinx. The worst he was probably doing was stealing sweets out from under Helen’s nose. Which was why both Jeffers and Thomas were currently here watching these two.

There were more sparks from the boy’s experiment. The grass caught fire at their feet. Virgil hastily stomped it out.

“I’ll watch them if you want to get food to bribe Virgil away,” Jeffers offered.

Thomas shook his head. “No need,” he said, and began walking towards them. “I thought you said that was ‘not flammable,’” he called as he walked towards them.

“Well, they’re technically not,” was Logan’s reply. “…The grass is though.”

Jeffers rolled his eyes for the benefit of no one as he turned away. He decided he was going to go get food to bribe Virgil away from destruction.

Since it was spring, he didn’t have as much food readily available, but he did already have a small crop of a new breed of radishes he could harvest to taste test. The vegetable garden was a good walk away, but he figured Thomas would be good enough supervision for the moment.

~~~

“Give,” Thomas demanded upon stopping a couple of feet in front of the children. Logan frowned but packed up and handed him the travel sized potion set without argument. (Thomas regretted giving that thing to him. Yes, it had made logical sense after the attempted poisoning. No, it had never been used for anything as practical as an antidote.) Thomas turned to Virgil. “You too,” he said. “Give.”

“I don’t have anything,” Virgil said with no hint of deception in his expression. Which, of course, meant he was lying to Thomas’s face.

“Nuh uh,” Thomas said. “Give it.”

They had a staring contest for a few moments before Virgil finally sighed. To Thomas’s surprise, he did not take out the fire knife. Instead, Virgil reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of what looked like rocks. He put them in Thomas’s outstretched hand.

Thomas had no idea what they were by sight, but considering the theme of their lantern decoration attempts (that is explosives and fire) he could hazard a guess.

“Am I holding explosives in my hand?” Thomas asked.

“They won’t explode unless they come into contact with vinegar,” Logan said.

“So, they are explosive,” Thomas said. “Just not currently active ones.”

“…I suppose,” Logan said.

Thomas opened Logan’s potion kit to get one of its sterile empty containers and put the explosive rocks into it. Then, he zipped the potion kit back up, with a mental note to himself to make sure to take the explosive rocks out of it before giving it back. He pointed at the lantern on the ground. “Paint it like normal people, please.”

Virgil leaned over towards Logan and spoke out of the side of his mouth. “King of Boring more like.”

“I can hear you,” Thomas pointed out, but Virgil, of course, had intended to be heard.

He grinned up innocently in response and Thomas just shook his head before lowering himself to the ground next to the scorched patch of grass.

In addition to their nontraditional decorating supplies, they did also have the usual supply of paints, ribbons, and colorful pieces of paper with them. They brought these out now and began work on making a few more lanterns to decorate. (As Logan and Virgil had only bothered to make one and it was now scorched on the inside.)

Patton and Helen arrived as they were finishing setting up their 6th (unburnt) lantern. The fact that Helen was not in the kitchen must mean all of the food for the festivities was officially finished and likely being handed out by other members of the staff. She’d been working almost nonstop for the past week to make sure everything was ready.

Both of them were carrying a basket full of enough food to provide snacks and dinner for their group for the rest of the night.

Most people did not go back inside during the Lantern Festival from midafternoon until all of the lanterns had been released into the night sky and disappeared, so, they had to have food for the entire night. Most of the food Helen had prepared was traditional for the festival (though there was a nonzero chance Helen had slipped some chicken alfredo into one of the baskets.)

Virgil had gotten to try a lot of the traditional dishes last year, but Thomas still couldn’t help but smile thinking about all of the sweet breads and meat stuffed pies the boy was going to shove into his face tonight.

One of Thomas’s personal favorites was a soft muffin-like pastry. When broken apart, a golden filling reminiscent of the lit lanterns was revealed. The dessert was usually eaten a bit before the lanterns were released and was shared between two people. Thomas had shared the treat with Virgil the year before and the boy had been entranced by the sparkling filling.

It had been a nice moment, one where Virgil’s leeriness towards him (that had never quite gone away after Thomas knew about his past) had faded for a moment, and the boy had just been a 14-year-old. It had warmed Thomas’ heart to see it.

God, but in those moments when his walls dropped, did he always remind Thomas of Aedan.

Now, Virgil was 15, and while Thomas could always see traces of his past in the ways he acted sometimes, things were better now. Thomas saw more of those moments where Virgil felt safe every day.

Like right now, when Logan pulled out a book detailing common Lantern Festival symbols and their meanings, Virgil only took a moment to glance at their surroundings with a cautious eye before bending over the book to take a closer look.

He had gotten much better at reading after Thomas got him a real tutor, but he still mouthed a few of the words to himself as he read the page.

He seemed to make a decision about one of his drawings because he sat back and grabbed some of the paints. Patton spoke happily to him, complimenting his color choices enthusiastically for “that one.”

Jeffers returned from wherever he’d gone off to a few minutes later. He’d brought himself a chair from his shed to sit on instead of sitting on the ground with the rest of them. Despite all the active work he did in the gardens all day, apparently sitting on the ground hurt his back.

He’d also brought a handful of something which he slipped to Virgil.

“Are these the new radishes?” Virgil asked, a hint of excitement to his tone.

Jeffers grunted an affirmation. “Thought you could be the first to try them.”

Virgil was more than happy to do so of course. (It was food, and it was gardening.) Thomas watched him chew happily; his eyes were brighter than the lanterns they would release in a few hours.

He was unsurprised when, amongst the traditional painted symbols representing safety, family, and home, a radish also appeared on Virgil’s lantern that night.

Perhaps it was a strange thing to put on a lantern symbolizing your wishes for the next year, but when the golden lantern floated into the sky hours later, Thomas thought it was perfect.

~~~

Thanks for reading and to everyone who voted and interacted as I live wrote this story over the past few years! Don't forget to check out the Little Kestrel Stats Page to see how your votes affected the end of the story. (There were 27 possible endings!)

If you'd like to impact my writing in the future, watch the Study Break Stories Tag. I hope to be returning to Folds in Paper before the end of the year.

For more in the Birds of Different Feathers Series, see my Birds of Different Feathers Master Post.

For more from me, see my Masterpost.

Thanks!

[snowdice]

Little Kestrel (Part 59) [Birds of Different Feathers Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan & Patton & Virgil (future Virgil/Patton but not in this story)

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton, Virgil

Appear: Thomas

Mentioned: Janus

Summary:

It was supposed to be a quick job either way. Either Virgil would assassinate King Thomas of Prijaznia or he’d be caught and get executed. Yet, when Virgil gets the wrong bedroom and gets caught by Prince Logan and his future royal advisor, Patton, the job ends up getting way more complicated for the 14-year-old. He also ends up sleeping in a (actually pretty comfortable) closet for a few weeks…

Notes: Implied/referenced child abuse, assassination attempt, knives, torture mentioned, captivity, teenagers being really dumb, sexual coercion of minors implied, a minor offering sexual favors, fire, minor character death

This is a prequel to Kill Dear. I wrote it 100 words at a time on my blog, but this is the edited version. If you want to see how it was crafted (and possibly some future content), look at the tag proofread stories.

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10Part 11Part 12Part 13Part 14Part 15Part 16Part 17Part 18Part 19Part 20Part 21Part 22Part 23Part 24Part 25Part 26Part 27Part 28Part 29Part 30Part 31Part 32Part 33Part 34Part 35Part 36Part 37Part 38Part 39Part 40Part 41Part 42Part 43Part 44Part 45Part 46Part 47Part 48Part 49Part 50Part 51Part 52 Part 53 Part 54 Part 55 Part 56 Part 57 Part 58

Logan and Patton had been useless during the fight, but that may have been for the best. Considering the skill differential when it came to fighting (and that differential had never been as clear as it was in this moment), that was probably for the best. They likely would have just gotten in the way.

The moment Logan’s father spoke, however, they both jumped into action.

They both knew their jobs in a situation like this. Patton pushed himself up to his feet ungracefully and all but sprinted over towards Virgil. Logan, on the other hand stood to face his father, putting himself very purposefully between the man who had no idea what was going on yet and the boy who was two seconds away from remembering what was going on.

“I can explain,” Logan said.

His father was still sitting on the ground. “You can explain,” he said slowly, “how Virgil just threw an assassin off a cliff.”

Logan thought pointing out that Virgil hadn’t thrown anyone off a cliff and instead had set them on fire with a magical knife causing them to walk off a cliff, would not be useful in this moment. He glanced briefly towards where Virgil and Patton were standing and then turned back to his father. “Yes.”

“And what would that explanation be?”

Before even starting to speak, Logan found himself making large dramatic ‘explaining hand gestures’ that he’d thought he’d long since trained himself out of. When he was younger and in trouble, he always used to give himself away as guilty by being overly expressive with his hands (and arms).

“So,” Logan said. He was still not able to stop the hand motions. “Virgil was an assassin. He came here to kill you last fall, but he accidently went to the wrong room in the royal wing. Patton and I were having a slumber party and caught him in the act. Then we reformed him and now he doesn’t kill people anymore.” He paused and glanced back, remembering the body that had just toppled off the cliff. “Er, uh, he doesn’t kill people who haven’t shot poison covered darts at people recently anymore?”

“What?”

“Look,” Logan said. “You’re going to have to tell him you’re not going to execute him soon. Patton can only keep him from bolting for so long.”

“Execute him?” his father asked.

“Well, he was a Mocnejsi assassin sent to kill you,” Logan said.

“Virgil is a Mocnejsi assassin,” his father repeated as though to confirm he’d heard him right.

Logan had thought the Mocnejsi was implied. “He was,” Logan confirmed.

“Why does that make more sense than any other explanation I’ve come up with for him?” his father asked while pinching his brow. Logan took that as rhetorical. Then, his father looked at him again. “He’s 14.”

“Yes,” Logan said, “I’m also pretty sure this is the first person he’s actually killed while not under a blood compulsion, so you really need to tell him he’s not going to be executed.”

His father seemed to actually absorb Logan’s request this time. He finally looked over Logan’s shoulder at Virgil, concern crossing his face at what he saw. “Right.”

He moved to step around Logan then, and Logan let him. Logan turned to watch him slowly approach Patton and Virgil, his hands out in a placating manner. He stopped a few feet away.

“Hey,” his father said. “That was a bit scary, huh?” Virgil looked at him, eyes wide and darting around like they did when he was looking for an escape. There wasn’t much of one being so close to the edge of the cliff. Logan would worry he’d contemplate throwing himself off of it in a bid to escape if Patton wasn’t hugging him to prevent that. “You did a good job.”

That seemed to give Virgil pause as his eyes focused on Father. “Good job?” he asked.

“Yes, well,” father said with a small smile, “judging by what those darts are doing to the grass and how far we are from any supplies for counter potions, I think you blocking them probably saved my life. So, I think a ‘good job’ is in order.”

Virgil did not respond verbally, though he tilted his head like he did when he was thinking through the steps of a potion. His posture changed enough that Patton released him cautiously, taking a step away.

“But,” Virgil said. “I’m an assassin.”

“Yes,” Father said, glancing towards the cliff’s edge. “I could tell by how that fight just went.”

Virgil shifted his weight. “I came here to kill you.”

Father seemed to think about this for a moment before he spread his arms wide. “Yet, here I am,” he pointed out. “You’ve had me alone multiple times including once in a secret room possibly no one would have ever found. Plus, you saved me today. I think that more than makes up for the intentions you had months ago.”

“Does that mean you’re not going to send me to prison?” Virgil asked. “Or execute me?”

“No, of course not,” his father said.

Virgil eyed him, still slightly warry.

“I promise, Virgil, you’re fine.”

“Dad wouldn’t lie,” Logan interjected. Virgil looked over at him and then back at Father. He nodded slowly.

“Good,” Father said. “Now can we get a bit further back from the edge?” He glanced at Patton. “You too, Patton.”

Virgil and Patton both stepped towards him, and he herded them as well as Logan away from the cliff until they were at the edge of the surrounding forest. They left all of their picnic supplies where they sat.

Once they were sufficiently away from the cliffside, Father turned back to Virgil. “Can I touch your face?” he asked.

Virgil nodded and Father pulled out a handkerchief. He carefully wiped the blood off Virgil’s face the best he could (most of it was not Virgil’s) and inspected the boy’s split lip and already bruising eye.

“Is your chest alright?” Father asked.

Virgil nodded. “Yeah.”

Father considered him. “Enough to ride back to the castle.”

“It wasn’t that bad of a hit,” Virgil insisted.

Father studied him for a moment longer. “I’ll choose to believe you for now,” he said. “We should get back to the castle as soon as possible just in case this is not an isolated attack.”

“We don’t work in teams,” Virgil informed them. “They worry we’d get emotionally attached to each other and not complete our missions to standard.”

“I can understand why they would say something like that,” Father said, letting just a bit of his scorn come through, “but still, we should be on our way.”

With that, he put an arm on Virgil’s back to guide him back towards where they’d left the horses.

“Huh,” Logan said to Patton as they began to walk behind them. “I thought we’d be in more trouble for all of this.”

His father paused, overhearing that. He turned to look at them over his shoulder briefly.

“Ah,” said Logan with a grimace. “I see.”

“It’s been nice being your friend all these years Logan,” Patton said solemnly. “Too bad we’re both going to be locked in our rooms for the rest of our lives.”

“Until your 50s with good behavior,” Father informed them blandly.

That was… probably fair. They did allow an assassin to freely roam the castle for months without telling anyone. The fact that his father was now watching that particular assassin like a hawk to make sure he wasn’t more injured than he was saying, did not change this fact.

Logan couldn’t find it in himself to regret it.

[snowdice]

In my dream it was Christmas and I was given a book as a present. I don’t actually recognize the story now that I’m awake, but in the dream it was a famous story that you had rewritten in your own style and I was So Thrilled to have a Physical Book of yours!

Aw that's sweet!

I'm glad you like my writing enough to have dreams of it lol. :)

[snowdice]

Have you ever thought about going back and writing Virgil's backstory as a fic in the Labeled AU? Maybe just a bit about what happened at his birth/a hint about his unknown father. And then just a few chapters about his childhood, mostly focused on his powers awakening? Also, it'd be hilarious to see the Shadow Caster/Prince pissing match that Logan mentioned, especially now that they're roommates. Will Virgil ever open up to Roman about his awful childhood and the scars?

Your Labeled fics are some of my favorite things to read and reread, thank you for sharing them!

This is actually the same answer I had for someone else recently. Currently I am focusing on a different part of the timeline, so I don't plan to write any of that right now. It may come up later if I get good ideas for it.

Honestly the father bit, idk if I ever want to even talk about that. He's not really a part of the story and I'm not sure if it would impact anything. I could change my mind though!

We did kind of already see the pissing match between Shadow Caster and Prince from some kid's perspective. There may be more references in stage 5 of Labeled, but we are currently in stage 4. Same with opening up to Roman. Maybe in stage 5.

Thanks! I'm glad you like them!

[snowdice]

Hello! Labeled universe question. There are some theories that invisibility can be achieved by bending light around the thing that you want to make invisible. If that's true in this AU, would Virgil be able to do that as a light manipulator? It'd be funny if he's used shadows to hide for so long, and then he or Logan find a paper/blog/magazine article about it and he realizes he could have just straight-up gone fully invisible instead. Bonus points if that leads him closer to his goal of willing away sunburns. :D

Going invisible would probably be something a light manipulator could do. However, I'm unsure if Virgil would train his skills to that point. If he does, it'll probably be down the road quite a bit.

He probably would discover that ability in his quest to avoid sunburn lmao.

[snowdice]

Can we know more of Virgil’s life before Patton and Logan in the labels universe and see it’s reflection into their daily lives together I’m really curious about how Virgil learned his powers and why they turned out as they did please and thank you btw I love ur work ur amazing

Hi! Glad you like my stuff. Currently I am focusing on a different part of the timeline, so I don't plan to write any of that right now. It may come up later if I get good ideas for it.

[snowdice]

Compared to the weird places Virgil has already been caught sleeping, and the suggestions that have already been made, this one feels pretty tame. But what about "for some baffling reason Virgil thought making a bed out of chairs was less work than just going to bed"? Bonus points if there's a perfectly serviceable bed or couch literally in the same room.

Though, if Virgil made the "bed" out of chairs for the same reason I had when I did it, he probably wasn't originally planning to sleep on it and just wanted to read while lying on his belly (again, the bed would be serviceable for this, but the couch would be less so because the back gets in the way of turning pages). Then on finishing the book and deciding he wants a nap, getting up would seem like too much work so 🤷‍♀️

(Publishing these to clear my ask box. I am putting them all in my Labeled word document for future reference!)

[snowdice]

Perhaps the top of the fridge? Oh, or (when it's warm in the summer) on the apartment's balcony if it has one? The roof would be good too.

(Publishing these to clear my ask box. I am putting them all in my Labeled word document for future reference!)

[snowdice]

Virgil falling asleep in the college library and Roman is starting to become concerned with his apparent narcolepsy, but the librarian is so used to when Virgil would do the same thing as a teenager when he waited for Logan to finish classes that she's like "trust me, he's fine"

(Publishing these to clear my ask box. I am putting them all in my Labeled word document for future reference!)

[snowdice]

So at my old church, there was this one spot of the floor, in the doorway to the nursery room, that was much warmer than the rest of the floor - I assume a heating vent ran through the walls there and that was the one floor spot you could feel it.

Anyway, point being: something like that, whether in the pantry or somethingor literally just him sleeping in a doorway. Pre-heated for optimal catnaps

(Publishing these to clear my ask box. I am putting them all in my Labeled word document for future reference!)

[snowdice]

For the envisage prompts, somewhere in Roman’s room? Perhaps under his bed? Like Roman was out and Virgil wanted his company/missed him, but felt weird laying in his bed. So underneath where it was dark and somewhat comfy he went!

(Publishing these to clear my ask box. I am putting them all in my Labeled word document for future reference!)