#Patton brings home a box of puppies?

[loganslowdown4]

Logan: Did you get the eggs like I asked?

Patton: Even better!

Logan: Wha-?

Patton: *reveals a live chicken* Her name is Fluffy!

Logan: No not- nO NOT AGAIN PATTON THE DOGS WILL EAT HER-

[sidespart]

Sibling Culture

Summary: Younger siblings Patton, Virgil and Roman share some stories about their older siblings Deceit, Logan and Remus. Patton and Virgil’s stories are cute. Roman’s are not.

Warnings: Abuse, Unsympathetic Remus, Non graphic descriptions of abuse, Not great understanding of mental health issues (child POV), authority figures not being very useful, child being exposed to sexual situations (very much not graphic). Ask if you want me to add more. 

Relationships: Gen, but a bit of pre-relationship moxiety snuck in because I love them

“Hey, how’d you get that scar?”

Despite the warm day, Roman felt cold grip his insides, twisting upwards towards his throat and freezing any denial he could think of until he was startled by a laugh from Patton.

“Oh! It was Dee’s fault.”

Wincing, Roman twisted himself so he could see the other two properly. Patton was still sprawled out on the grass next to him, but Virgil had sat up. He was hunched over, peering at Patton’s leg. When he saw Roman carefully sit up to join him he pointed at a faded sliver of a scar, just above Patton’s left knee.

“What did he DO?” Virgil face had shifted into a scowl at the mention his ‘arch enemy’ but that faded quickly as Patton started giggling.

“It was when I was …four? I think? He convinced me the Easter Bunny didn’t come to our house because the Easter Fox lived in our yard. I had to go out and patrol the yard, make sure it was safe, or I wouldn’t get any candy that year.”

-It said something about years of friendship with both Patton and Devin Sanders that neither Roman or Virgil thought to question that logic-

“Anyway he let me stomp around there for ever and then he jumped out in this fox mask to scare me!”

“This kind’ve thing is why he’s a dick” Virgil muttered. His hand, Roman noticed, was still on Patton’s leg, thumb swiping idly over the scar.

“He was nine, Vee” Patton said reprovingly, although he didn’t actually deny the comment, “anyway, he didn’t know I’d snuck a knife from the dishwasher-

“You WHAT?-”

“A KNIFE?-”

“-there was candy AND a bunnys life a stake, guys I was taking it seriously!” Patton’s eyes were sparkling with laughter at the twin looks of horror on his friends faces. “Anyway, he startled me so bad that of course I dropped it right away – sliced my knee up as it fell.”

“oh my God” Virgil groaned finally relinquishing Patton’s leg so he could bury his face in his hands. “That could have been so bad Pat.”

“what did Devin do?” Roman asked quietly.

“oh, he freaked – Virgil will you come out of there I’m fine – yelled so loud both our parents came running. Then, once I was all bandaged up, he tried to convince them I fell off a skateboard.”

That was enough to make Virgil peak through his fingers, a frown on his face “Did you ever even own a skateboard?”

Patton shifted himself so he was sitting up as well, an extremely solemn look on his face.

“We did not.”

There was a brief, pregnant pause before all three of them cracked up, their laughter echoing across Vigil’s yard.

“Older brothers are the worst.” Virgil pronounced. Despite the heat of the day he was still wearing his thick hoodie over a t-shirt and jeans, but now he started pushing up his right sleeve “Did I ever tell you about the time Logan threw me out of the tree house?”

“He what??!” Roman yelped.

“He would NEVER!” Patton gasped.

“He did” Virgil held his right arm up, revealing a long puckered line that ran from his mid forearm across his elbow. “It was before either of you moved here, I had a cast and everything”

All three of them took a moment to admire Virgil’s scar, much more raised and defined than Patton’s, before Roman asked the question they were no doubt all thinking:

“What colour was your cast?”

“Purple.”

“Nice.”

“Did Logan really push you Virgil?” Roman had to do his absolute best not to laugh at the pout that appeared on Virgil’s face when he took in Patton’s heartbroken expression.

Logan McAlister, was four years older than the three friends and Patton had fixated on him the moment they’d met. Roman has spent years watching Patton go from hero worship to puppy love to full blown crush all while Virgil stomped along next to him like a gloomy, jealous, storm cloud.

Not that Virgil would ever admit that it was jealousy making him snap and snarl at his brother whenever his friends came around…but their relationship certainly seemed to become more civil once Patton had gotten over his crush.

Roman couldn’t really blame Patton either. Virgil had never said anything and Logan…Logan was cool.

“He built a plane.” Virgil muttered eventually, shoving his sleeve back into place. “or a glider or…something. A box with a sheet stuck too it anyway. We both sat in it and he pushed us out of there.” He pointed towards the somewhat dilapidated tree house nestled in the tallest tree in the yard.

Roman let out a low whistle. Now that the three of them were quickly approaching seventeen they had physically, if not mentally, started to outgrow the tree house. Which meant it was no longer useful for much beyond lying down almost on top of each other during study sessions or lazy afternoon naps. When Roman had first met Virgil at age ten however it had seemed enormous. And very high up. It would have seemed even higher whenever the Ill-fated glider attempt had happened.

‘Were you scared?” he asked, watching Virgil carefully, but the other boy just shrugged.

“I don’t remember much to be honest. We were both pretty small.” He grinned. “I just remember afterwards. Logan kept coming into my room to sneak me chips and read his Physics text book to me”

“Aww! That so sweet!”

“Such a nerd.”

“Yeah.” Virgil ducked his head a little, apparently agreeing with both statements. He plucked a few strands of grass from the lawn, twisting them between his fingers.

Roman glanced at Patton, concerned. They both knew Virgil missed his brother, away at college and not due for a visit for at least a month. They also knew that asking him directly about it was a guaranteed way to get the emo to tense up.

Just as Roman was debating launching himself into a rendition of Black Parade as a distraction Virgil rolled his shoulders a looked up at him.

“Your turn.”

That cold grip he’d felt when he thought Virgil had noticed one of his scars was suddenly back ten fold.

“Oh…”

That made sense. Patton had shared a dumb sibling story. Then Virgil. Now it was his turn. It was only fair.

“Well…”

Roman was suddenly finding it quite difficult to breath. And to think. What was he supposed to tell them?

“I…”

He sat frozen. While two expectant faces stared at him, he racked his brain for a story to tell.

  -

When they’re seven Roman draws out his first story. Crude renderings of superheroes and scientists and scientist-superheroes in the rainforest. it’s boring Remus complains when he sees it. You’re boring Ro’. Make them fight! No - make ‘em smash that guys head in!

No! Roman shouts and Remus scowls. Grabs at the craft scissors lying on the table and jumps towards Roman; trying to both rip the paper out of his hands and cut it to pieces at the same time whilst Roman screams and screams.

Later, their mother gently cleans the tiny scratches on Romans hand whilst Remus sulks at the table. He started it Remus mutters and Roman feels his mothers arms tighten around him. Protective.

 - 

When they’re nine they get taken on a trip to the public pool in the next town. This pool is bigger than their local one with slides and pool toys and jets. The two of them spend a happy hour chasing each other with pool noodles and racing each other in the water. And then Remus pushes Romans head underwater and holds him down until his lungs are burning so badly he opens his mouth. He spends their last precious minutes of the trip hacking and spluttering. Clinging to the pools edge with his brothers laughter ringing in his ears.

 -

When they’re eleven Remus sneaks into his room at night with their fathers laptop tucked securely under his arm. Wakes Roman up by crashing onto the bed next to him and says look what I found!

Roman isn’t really sure what he’s found at first. The sounds off, presumably to avoid alerting their parents in the room next door, the websites unfamiliar – it takes a few seconds for the pulsing blobs to be recognisable as people and when they do YURGHH! Roman shrikes slams the laptop closed whilst Remus howls with laughter what were they doing to that woman?!

what were they – oh my god your such a pussy Roman don’t you know? Let me show you another one-

NO

Roman kicks and punches and shoves trying to get Remus away from him and Remus is laughing laughing laughing until he isn’t. Until their parents are in the room, shouting, trying to separate them and Remus is using the laptop like a bludgeon, slamming the edge into Romans ribs, each hit punctuated with Why! Do! You! Ruin! Everything!

The next day Virgil asks if he wants to come and play in the tree house and Roman says no. He has to be home early. Visitors. Virgil accepts the lie easily and Roman tries not to breath to deeply.

  -

The thing is you cant blame Remus. You’re not allowed. Not really. 

There’s something wrong with him.

What that something is seems to change often depending on which adult you ask. Every few months their parents bring Remus back from a new therapist with a new diagnosis and a new bottle of pills and big grins because THIS time they’re going to fix him.

  -

When they’re twelve Romans mother smiles at him and says Your such a good boy Roman. You keep me going. Their mother doesn’t smile much these days and the sight of it is almost as good as the praise. I know its hard. It must be so frustrating for you.

Last month Remus had convinced an older boy to gift him a box of cigarettes. That morning he’d  found them again and finally tried to smoke them, recruiting a reluctant Roman to keep watch. When he’d gagged on the taste he’d made exaggerated vomiting noises before stuffing the still burning end into Romans palm.

But we’re all in this together. You know?

Roman knows. He wants to help. He decides that unless the injury is bad enough he can’t fix it himself he simply wont tell his parents. He wants to help keep them going.

  -

When they’re thirteen Remus watches some murder mystery show and decides to burn his fingerprints off on the kitchen stove. We should do yours too! Shoving his mangled thumb under Romans nose. The smell makes Roman gag. Remus’ eyes are fever bright. We could be partners in crime!

 -

When they’re fourteen Remus decides he wants white streaks in his hair. And since they’re twins Roman should too. His attempt to bleach Romans hair as he sleeps leads to ruined sheets and a smattering of chemical burns across his neck and shoulders. He tells Patton it was a cooking accident and invests his saved allowance in jackets with high starched collars.

 -

When they’re fifteen he tells someone.

Their school has an assembly. Some outside company performing a play about abusive relationships. The teachers all have their sombre This Is A Serious Topic Don’t You Dare Laugh faces on as the actors work. Roman watches closely, picking up on all the false steps and poorly delivered lines which he would surely have avoided if he was an actor. The story is about a school girl who gets into a relationship with an older man who turns abusive. All throughout the play she drops increasingly massive hints to her friends and family who blithely ignore her until she dies spectacularly and loudly in the final scene.

On one side of Roman, Patton is fully sobbing. On the other Virgil is quite possibly asleep. The actors come out to a smattering of applause (lead overly enthusiastically by Patton) and launch in to a pre-prepared speech. Remember the signs! Tell a parent or teacher if you’re in trouble! If you suspect your friend is in trouble! Abuse can happen to anyone! Abusers can BE anyone!

Huh. Roman thinks afterwards.

He probably doesn’t count if it’s a sibling though.

Remus isn’t a stranger. Like the man in the play. And they’re the same age.

Still.

The next day he feels like he’s in a trance.

He takes his jacket off in his first class. Art. Pat and Virgil aren’t in this class with him. Better that way.

There are bruises on his forearms. Dark splotches which are so so obviously made by fingers.

He waits. One minute. Two.

Roman! His teacher is in front of him, faster than he anticipated, alarmed look on his face. What happened to your arm?

Stay in the trance. No shaking. M-my brother did it. He wanted the TV remote.

A pause that seems to last and hour and then his teachers’ laughing a shaky laugh. Smiles at him exasperated but fond. Roman aren’t you two a little too old to be roughhousing like that?

Right

It doesn’t count.

You can’t be abused by a sibling. A few cuts, bruises, scars – that’s just sibling culture baby. Virgil and Patton have stories too – you don’t see them freezing up. Complaining

Don’t be a pussy Roman.

He puts his jacket back on and keeps it on for the rest of the day.

 -

When they’re sixteen Remus comes home for the weekend, sits at the kitchen table and asks if Roman wants to hang out.

-Remus goes to a special school for behaviourally challenged students and only comes back every other weekend. Their parents cried when he left. Thought they’d failed. Felt devastated. Roman didn’t feel much of anything and wonders if that makes him a bad person-

Remus is calmer these days but Roman still says no. He has plans with his friends. Oh yes. Remus rolls his eyes Paddington Bore and the Virgin.

Roman glares at him. Don’t call them that. Even though that’s basically affectionate, for Remus. And Remus looks at him for a long moment before nodding. Standing up, shoving the table hard into Roman’s hip leaving him gasping in pain.

By the time he’s limped his way to Virgil’s house the sun is high in the sky. Patton suggests lazy nap time in the tree house and just looking at the ladder makes Roman want to vomit.

It’s such a beautiful day Padre he crys, lets lie amongst the wildflowers like the majestic forest nymphs we are.

Its literally just grass Virgil sighs but Patton laughs and Roman lowers himself stiffly down. Carefully keeps the pain out of his face as his hip makes contact with the ground. Turns away from them whilst he grits his teeth through it, ostensibly napping until Virgil says

Hey, how’d you get that scar?

   -

“Roman?”

Virgil and Patton were both staring at him. Shit Roman thought. How long had he been day-dreaming? Day-reminiscing? Day-

“Earth to Roman.” Patton again, there was crinkle of concern between his eyebrows and that wouldn’t do at all.

“Well-“ Roman boomed in his best dramatic bellow, what Virgil call his ‘Prince Roman’ voice: “I am afraid I will have to disappoint you my friends, twins are not bound by your foolish ‘older sibling’ ‘younger sibling’ stereotypes”

“I mean, technically, one of you is the older sibling” Virgil muttered while Patton laughed “you’re seriously telling me neither of you ever did something dumb and got the other one hurt?”

“Virgil Madelaine McAlister-“

“Not my middle name.”

“-I will have you know that I have never done anything dumb. Ever. In my life!” he punctuated that statement with a dramatic point to the heavens. Patton was now laughing hard enough that Roman was fairly sure he should be offended and Virgil was fighting a smirk.

“You really never fight?”

“We’re a united front.” Drop it, drop it please just drop it he chanted internally.

And then, miracle of miracles, Virgil did. Letting himself flop back to the ground with a soft ‘humph’.

“It must be nice to have a twin” Patton said a little wistfully. Careful he arranged himself back on the ground so his head was cushioned on Virgil’s stomach. “you’re basically born with a ready-made friend!”

“And you get to do everything together” Virgil murmured a faint blush on his face and one hand hovering in the vicinity of Patton’s hair. “No one has to get left behind when one goes off to college.”

Roman glanced down at him, worried, but Virgil just met his gaze softly, one side of his mouth pulling up into one of his rare sweet smiles. “You’re so lucky Roman.”

Roman nodded. Ignored the quick flare of pain in his hip as he laid himself back down in the grass. He let out a contented sigh as the warmth of the ground sunk into his bones, soothing the ache

“Very lucky.” He agreed quietly.

[alex-ruins-everything]

Being Human - Chapter 1

A werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost live in the same home together, going about their lives and cherishing the little spooky safe haven they have created for themselves. Until they get a new roommate who knows nothing of the monster world or what he's gotten himself into

Read the whole thing on ao3 here.

It had been Patton’s idea to put the advertisement out. Logan didn’t think they needed to rent out the spare bedroom in their home, but Patton had convinced himself that they could help someone in need and the home was more than big enough, suited for a family rather than just a couple.

“Darling, you know I love your charitability, but there is one small issue about gaining a roommate that I fear you might not have considered,” Logan had said.

“What’s that?” Patton asked, tilting his head in the adorable way he always did.

“Well, how about the fact that you’re a werewolf, Virgil is a ghost, and I’m a vampire? Those things are hard enough to hide at work and in our day to day lives. Surely you don’t want to have to hide at home too…”

But Patton had given him those puppy dog eyes (no pun intended) and Logan caved just like he always did when his husband asked for something. He wrote up the ad and had a few interviews with candidates that Logan simply could not stand. Even Patton admitted after a while that maybe it wasn’t the best idea. He had changed his mind apparently since Logan got a text while on his way home from work at the hospital stating that there was someone there now and to hurry home. So much for running errands after his shift. Logan sped home, opening the front door to see Patton sitting in the living room with a young man while Virgil lurked at the top of the steps with a sour look on his face.

“Lo! Welcome home, love,” Patton grinned, hopping up from the couch to give Logan a kiss on the cheek. “This is Roman! He responded to our ad about the room.”

Logan looked Roman over, an arm slinking around Patton’s waist as they moved back to the couch across from Roman. The very first thing he noticed was how odd he smelled. Not in the sense that he smelled bad...just different in a way he couldn’t quite place. His heart was also beating unusually fast for a situation that seemed calm enough.

“Welcome to our home, Roman,” Logan spoke. “Now if you don’t mind there’s just a few questions.”

Logan went down his list, getting a pretty good sense of who this Roman was. He was an aspiring actor who worked at a diner nearby. He had moved away from home to try and get some better work closer to the main city, but his previous lease just ended and the landlord decided to raise rent way outside of his budget. He had no pets, worked odd hours between the diner and auditions and singing gigs so it was likely the three of them would rarely be home at the same time, save for Virgil who was always home but humans couldn’t see him so they didn’t mention the haunting spirit of the house. He even offered the first two month’s rent up front as soon as he got his security deposit back from his current apartment. All in all he seemed to be a wonderful candidate. The couple took his phone number and promised to call him back soon.

“I like him!” Patton said after Roman had left, cuddling up against Logan’s side.

“I don’t,” Virgil stated, finally coming down from the top of the steps. “He’s loud.”

“Patton is loud,” Logan replied.

“Patton is different. Roman is an annoying loud,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “This was my house before it was yours and I vote no. I don’t wanna have to put up with him while you two get to escape the house.”

“Sadly I think Patton has made up his mind. Roman is going to come live with us, isn’t he?” Logan asked.

“Roman is gonna come live with us!” Patton cheered.

Logan made the call to Roman, giving him the news. He was to move in on the first of the next month and Patton made it his mission to get the spare bedroom all ready while Logan concerned himself more with obtaining a coded lock for the basement door so he could put a fridge for his blood supply down there. He also heavily worked on the shed in the backyard, fortifying it and soundproofing it for Patton’s monthly change. He still thought it was a highly illogical move, but Patton was excited so Logan could learn to manage. If worse came to worst they could always kill Roman. It was a morbid way to think but it made him feel more secure to have a backup plan.

The first of the month came and they both helped Roman move his few boxes of belongings into the house. Virgil was sulking in the attic where he usually went to get alone time. Patton had planned out a welcome dinner for Roman since both he and Logan took off of work for the night to help with the move. Patton ate regular food on a daily basis unlike Logan who didn’t need to. The food would just sit in his stomach until he got rid of it. He couldn’t digest human food. Patton was much better at making small talk, filling up most of the silence by conversing with Roman about mundane things. Auditions, family life, on and on. Apparently Roman had a brother, but he didn’t seem too thrilled about that fact.

“So how did you two meet?” Roman asked, causing Logan to look up from his mashed potatoes.

“Patton was a patient that came into the ER...and continued to come back. He can be clumsy at times,” Logan stated. “Then he ended up finding me outside of work and made his move.”

“And the rest is history!” Patton grinned.

“Aw, that's so cute!” Roman replied, smiling at the two before yawning.

“Lo and I will clean up, you go get some rest,” Patton instructed. “You must be beat from the move and all.”

“Are you sure? I’m not gonna pass out, I can help-” “We got it, kiddo. Off you go,” Patton assured, watching Roman ascend up the stairs and listening for the click of the bedroom door.

“Finally. I thought he was never gonna go away,” Virgil said, sinking down from the ceiling and landing on the ground.

“You don’t have to hide around him. He can’t see you,” Logan reminded, grabbing plates from the table and bringing them to Patton in the kitchen.

“He makes me uncomfortable. Weird vibes,” Virgil explained.

“Ah, yes. I believe the slang would be ‘theater kid’, yes?”

“Dude you’re asking the wrong person.”

“Oh you two are so cynical,” Patton butted in, helping Logan clear the table while Virgil levitated off the ground and crossed his legs. “I think he’s a nice young man. V, he’s about your age!”

“No he isn’t. I was dead before he was even born,” Virgil stated, glancing up as Roman’s shuffling around in his room could be heard. “Ugh...I just hope he doesn’t stay for too long.”

Logan’s phone went off with an alarm sound as he looked down at the text he got with a slight frown.

“Hospital needs me, I have to go,” he said, tucking the device in his back pocket. “I’ll see you in the morning, darling. Virgil, enjoy going bump in the night.”

Logan gave Patton a kiss on the cheek, apologizing for leaving him with all the dishes before grabbing his keys and heading out the door. Something Virgil said stuck with him, but likely not in a way the other meant for it to. How long would Roman last around this place? They’d just have to wait and find out.

[mimssides]

Life on Crow Avenue: Part 6

Read on AO3

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___

Most days Janus didn’t care too much about working at the pet store of his nephew. He did not mind the mothers and children who came in and asked questions about rats, hamsters or guineapigs. He did not mind taking care of snakes and feeding them mice.

But sitting in the store on a Sunday, well that was something Janus did not enjoy at all. This stupid rescue thing was all nice and well in theory but the on-call service Virgil wanted to provide every fucking weekend was the bane of his existence.

“I don’t have you come with me every time! So, stop sulking and bring me the broom,” Virgil instructed him.

Janus rolled his eyes and got up to get him the broom he requested. With a badly hidden pout Janus watched Virgil sweep the empty cage. They did not have puppies and kittens here all the time, as they only accepted them from a few select breeders and so the space was often unoccupied. Still, Virgil insisted on keeping it clean in case that they had to take in a cat or dog for a short while, which had been brought to them. Only until they had found the actual owner or found a better place for it to stay.

Janus respected Virgil’s work attitude and philosophy greatly. It was incredible that he had found such a strong and positive outlet of all his nervous energy, considering how long he had been struggling with his anxiety. But then again, Virgil could not do much that would actually disappoint Janus. He was his godfather after all.

As Janus’s thoughts wandered off, he almost missed the ringing of the doorbell. Quick he straightened up and limped over to the door. It wasn’t open as it was a Sunday, but they had put a label next to the doorbell, where it said they could ring for emergencies.

And as Janus opened the door, he quickly realized that this probably was a small emergency. A teenage boy with a wicker basket stood in front of him. Out of the basket there was the sound of loud, a little aggressive meowing and Janus clacked his tongue.

“Virgil? We’ve got a cat!” he called for him and then looked back to the boy. “Hey, sorry, what is your name and how did you come to bring us this cat?”

The boy’s name was Lewis and the cat had walked into the backyard of their apartment complex. He had initially wanted to keep it but after a discussion with his mother decided to bring it here, he explained to Janus, as they walked towards the little room off the side, where Virgil had his makeshift check-up station. The lanky man had set the basket on the table and asked for Janus to close the door, so the cat could not run out of the room.

Lewis curiously looked how Virgil then opened the basket and let the cat jump out of it. Quick Virgil had gripped it by the back of its neck and made a few shushing sounds, before the cat miraculously calmed down and he checked it for any injuries whatsoever. Fascinated Lewis watched the gentle but swift motions of Virgil’s hands as he checked it and looked up to Janus in curiosity.

“He’s good with animals. That’s why he wanted us to do this,” Janus answered the unasked question with smile and let Virgil do his job as he kept the boy off his back.

After a few minutes Virgil then turned and looked down to Lewis.

“So, this little cat here was lucky! He’s uninjured and looks pretty healthy,” he explained as he scratched the cat behind the ear and waved Lewis to come a little closer. “He’s well fed and I found a chip. I’ll check now if we can read the data and find the owner like that. And then we can get him back to his home.”

Lewis watched him with big eyes and bit his lips.

“And if you cannot find them? Could I have the cat?”

Virgil exchanged a look with Janus and the older man huffed and put his hand on the teen’s shoulder.

“Look,” Janus said and pulled him softly back to the door, “if the cat belongs to someone, we can’t do anything but return it.”

“But what if I want it more?”

Janus sighed and squeezed his shoulder.

“Doesn’t go like this, boy. If you had a cat and it would get lost, how would you feel if somebody else would just keep it? We can’t do that, can we?”

Lewis looked to the floor, pouted and said: “No, we can’t. I get that.”

“Good,” Janus said and pulled his hand away, waiting for Lewis to look up. “But between us; if they suck or if we can’t find them, we’ll bring him back to you, okay?”

Immediately Lewis’s eyes lit up and he nodded excitedly at Janus, who felt Virgil glare at the back of his head. Quickly, he then led Lewis out of the room to let Virgil do scan and asked Lewis to give him his mail so he could contact and inform him what had happened with the cat.

“Can I come by tomorrow and ask how things are, if I don’t hear from you?” he asked and Janus chuckled.

With a grin Janus walked away from behind the counter, opened the door for Lewis and said: “You’re welcome to do so. Even if you were to hear from us. Maybe we could check out together what kind of cat would fit for your living situation if this one isn’t going to be yours, what do you think?”

The look Lewis gave him almost made up for Janus having to sit out the whole Sunday and he wished the teen a good afternoon as he left. With a sigh he made his way back to the little room. He knocked on the door frame and waited for Virgil to turn around. Eventually Virgil turned around and Janus got to see his frown.

“What’s the news?” Janus asked looking at the cat chilling in Virgil’s arms.

Virgil scratched the cat’s belly and answered: “I could read the chip, but I did a check of the address, because there was no phone number or mail on it, and it seems like they moved out? And I can’t find them anywhere? So, I don’t know what’s next?”

“Do you find the number or mail of neighbours of them? They might know where they went and could tell us. That’s the only thing I can think of right off the bat, at least,” Janus offered and Virgil started googling.

___

An hour later the duo stood with a cat in a transport box in front of Logan’s door and rang his bell.

Why that was? Well, they had managed to contact neighbours of the old cat owners and they had been able to tell them where they lived now. Which was great. But, of course there was a but, they had also informed them that the couple apparently only spoke broken English and otherwise talked in an East European language. Which led to the following conversation:

 “Wait, isn’t Logan like part East European?”

 “His surname is Fojtík if I recall correctly, so that could be possible. Didn’t he say he knows a little … Polish and Croatian?”

 “I think it’s Czech not Croatian but I don’t know if that’s what we’ll need…”

 “Well, it’s the best shot we have, storm could. Let’s go over to the bookworm and ask him if he might want to help us.”

And so, they stood there and waited for Logan to open the door. And as Logan opened the door, Janus was quick to explain their situation and when he ended Logan looked more than unimpressed.

“Do you know how broad the term “East Europe” is? And my knowledge of Polish and Czech is quite limited as I am self-taught and have almost no talking experience. I doubt I would be any help,” Logan said and pushed his glasses up with his middle and ring finger.

Janus rolled his eyes and wanted to argue, as he suddenly a voice from indoors perked up and said in his stead: “Come on, Lo! At the very least you know more than they do, and it’s for the well-being of this cat!”

And those words were followed by Patton walking up to Logan, former wearing a white tank top, black jogging shorts, white socks and a pair of pink slippers. Janus eyed him curiously, watched how he put his hand on Logan’s shoulder and how the small man visibly stiffened and looked up to him with slight annoyance in his face. But somehow there was no edge to Logan’s look and Janus was sure to keep that little interaction in mind together with the other little clues the two had left him over the years.

“I suppose you have a point. But why exactly do you need to do this today?” Logan asked and turned his attention back to Janus.

Janus nudged his nephew in the arm and said with a chuckle: “Because he dislikes keeping the animals away from their homes for too long. Also, his owners’ place is only like forty minutes away.”

“Oh,” Logan said and nodded.

He then looked back over his shoulder to Patton and the man grinned at him with a pledge in his eyes. Logan moaned and walked back inside while murmuring: “Fine! But you’ll help me put in the sign when I come back.”

“If you give me the keys, I can move it inside while you’re away, Logi. It’s no bother at all!” Patton said and looked inside the apartment while Janus exchanged a look with Virgil who just shook his head at the romantic foolery.

After a minute Logan was back, ready with his satchel and a light jacket and said goodbye to Patton, who said he’d order dinner for them if he told him in time when they’d come back. Quick the three walked down and headed towards Virgil’s car. At once Virgil stopped and both men halted and looked at him.

“I want to look after the cat while we’re driving,” Virgil stated unprompted.

“And?” Janus asked and made a light motion with his hand.

“Who’s driving then? Lo cannot drive, I won’t let you drive and I want to look after the cat.”

“Oh my god,” Logan moaned and Janus facepalmed.

Of course, this would be a problem, Janus thought and was about to explain to Virgil that for once in his life he might have to let him handle the cat, when he looked up and saw a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“We could ask your boyfriend to drive,” Virgil proposed smugly and Janus gasped theatrically.

“He is not my boyfriend! And we will not bother him with such trivial matters!”

“But bothering Logan is okay? Sorry, uncle J, we’re not going to compromise on this one. Go and get the flower boy, while I and Lo get into the car. K?”

Janus huffed but eventually went to the brother’s store. He had seen them doing something inside and he hoped it could save himself from climbing anymore stairs for the day.

And Janus was indeed lucky. Roman was just about to walk inside the store when Janus saw him. Roman spotted him around the same time and waved happily. Janus smiled back and walked closer, watching how Roman stood still and waited for him to come closer.

“Good afternoon Mr. Segura Reyes,” Janus greeted him with a grin and Roman chuckled.

“Good afternoon to yourself Mr. Jones! Whatever can I help you with?”

Janus stood still for a moment, watching how Roman turned further towards him and pushed a loose hair strain behind his ear.

“Well, normally I would feel offended that you assume I’d only come to you because I want something, but for once I have a little favour to ask from you.”

“Oh? What is it?” Roman asked curiously and Janus curtly explained what had gone down at the pet store today.

Attentively Roman had listened and said when Janus was finished: “So, you need a driver? I can do that! Just let me get my wallet and say bye to Rem. Then I’m all yours!”

“Really?” Janus said a little surprised by how easy it was to get Roman to do something so ridiculous.

Roman had already started to walk towards the door of the shop and stopped now. With a smile and an amused look, he told Janus: “Don’t be silly! I love to help you guys whenever I can! It’s great around here and I’m happy to do my part!”

And then the florist disappeared in the shop and Janus was left standing there for a few moments. He really liked him. He did. But this kindness and will to give was sometimes almost too much for Janus. It was as if Roman was trying to prove something with it. Not to Janus, not to anybody in particular, but maybe the world itself, which made Janus question what had motivated the man to develop such a stupidly altruistic life philosophy.

“Till later, Rem! I’m back in two hours or so!” Roman’s voice pulled Janus out of his thoughts and he watched the man exit the door, looking back over his shoulder, probably looking at Remus somewhere inside.

“Yeah, goodbye! Take care! Drive save,” Janus heard the response from Roman’s brother and the man nodded happily and closed up on Janus.

___

Roman was a pleasantly good driver and the cat was one of the greatest cats of all; a cat which didn’t meow as if he was dying any second now while driving. The radio was a little turned down and Logan had inquired how Janus’s youngest sister was doing, as he had frequently talked about her.

Lotona, second youngest of the Jones family, had just had her third kid and Janus had visited her last weekend.

“So how many nieces and nephews do you have combined, now? With so many siblings and whatnot,” Roman asked casually.

Janus sat in the front seat next to Roman, Logan and Virgil, rather cramped in the back, and shot a lazy look to Roman. It was fascinating how focused he seemed to be sitting behind this wheel.

“I think, her daughter is the eighteenth?” Janus mused.

“No, she’s the ninetieth. You forgot to count aunt Flora’s boy. He’s been born like half a year ago, I think?” Virgil corrected and Janus sighed.

“That’s a lot of cousins, Virgil. You probably didn’t feel like an only child at all, if you were growing up in such a big household,” Roman said and looked into the rear-view mirror for a second.

Virgil huffed a little and put his fingers through the holes of the transport box. With the hint of a smile he mumbled: “It didn’t. Was kinda nice all things considered. Like, it has its perks to have such a big family. Always someone there to turn to.”

Roman smiled at the answer and nodded a little. Janus observed him closely as he did so. It looked like a happy and content expression and gesture. But there was something a little too stiff, too melancholic in Roman’s eyes as he spoke and Janus had picked up on it. One of these days he would probably have to find out what it was but not anytime soon if he had a say in it. He did not feel comfortable yet to dug up this man’s past life.

“But you seem to be pretty close with Remus too,” Virgil said at once and met eyes with Roman in the rear-view mirror. “He seems to be a rather protective older brother from what I can tell. Was he always like that?”

Roman rolled his eyes and chuckled at that statement. With a lopsided smile he answered: “It’s almost funny how everybody always figures out that he’s twenty minutes older than me just because he sometimes acts like a ridiculous guard dog.”

“Wait. You’re twins?!” Virgil half yelled which made Logan flinch next to him.

Roman only shrugged and kept watching the road.

“Yeah. Identical twins. When we were younger people had no way to tell who’s who. It was fun to mess with people like that. Today, nobody falls for it anymore, but we’re still just as close as we were. Maybe even more so. And I’m very thankful for that. Because it is really nice to have someone you can fall back to no matter what.”

Virgil nodded and then apologized to the cat for yelling, ignoring Logan’s dramatic eye roll. Janus just stared at Roman. Somehow, this statement made him uneasy. It was as if someone had thrown a puzzle in front of him and as he began to put it together, he started to realize that pieces were lacking. Pieces he needed to see the whole picture.

But Janus did not give into the curiosity and instead asked Virgil how long far away from their destination they were. In response Virgil looked onto the route on Google Maps and said about five minutes.

They soon reached the neighbourhood where the apartment should be and after ten minutes found the actual destination they were looking for. After another minute of deliberation, if Virgil had to come with Janus or not, Janus, Virgil and Logan walked towards the house and left Roman standing by the car, so they wouldn’t overwhelm the couple completely.

Lazily, Roman leaned against the car and scrolled through the Instagram account of their shop and then started to play a game on his phone.

It really was a nice afternoon and it had been interesting to learn a little more about Janus and Virgil’s family. He had hoped to hear a little more about Logan but the man apparently was rather secretive with his past. Roman could respect that. Who if not he?

Roman let out a little laugh and stretched his arms. Curious he looked up to the apartment building, wondering if they had found the right cat owner, when he suddenly felt his phone buzzing twice in his hand.

He unlocked the screen.

He had gotten the text.

Blankly he stared at the screen and stumbled against the car. He needed to go home to Remus, he desperately thought.

___

@varthandi

@sickeningly-deceitful

@sammy-is-obsessed / @exhaustedfander

@unoriginalgayboyalex

@alexisrealgay

@softie-sushi

@wolfs-feder

@just-a-neoclassical-painting

For this fic:

@frawkeye

@arodynamic-enby

@espepspes​

@ladysuperheros

@bullet-tothefeels

@fukindork

@shadeofadye

@magic-but-its-green

@liv-is-a-fander

@croftersjam15

[jackalopes-pen]

Roommates Part 2

The Neighbors

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

TW: Swearing, Mild Gore, Eating Disorder Mention

Characters: Asexual Pan-romantic Janus Sanders | Gay Remus | Asexual Homoromatic Logan | Bisexual Patton |

Summary: As Remus is left alone to his own devices he decides to make some friends.

Author’s Note: THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT!!!! I’ve never received this many likes on something so thank you so much!! I will start a tag list, just use the ask box and I’ll tag ya. Also yes, this series won’t really get dramatic it’s mainly just some fluff to tide you over.

Remus woke up that morning to the pleasant aroma of a home cooked meal. It smelled like eggs and toast with maybe some bacon but not a lot. He walked into the kitchen to see Janus cooking breakfast and judging by the two plates, it was for both of them. Luckily for Remus, JJ didn’t notice Remus come in. The perfect opportunity for a good morning scare. He won’t even see it coming.

Remus creeped up behind Janus like the sneaky man he is and simply said, loudly, “HI JANUS!” to which Janus literally jumped up. It was like they were on a seesaw because when Janus jump up, Remus fell to his knees laughing his ass off. Snake boy? More like rabbit!

“Ha ha very funny Remus. You’re lucky I love you,otherwise I’d burn your food.” Remus knew Janus would never, but still funny.

“Oh come on De! It was all in good fun!” Just as uptight as Roman

Janus began muttering to himself in a tone that Remus knew meant he was in the clear. They ate breakfast which Remus had to compliment a million times because it had been forever since he had something that wasn’t frozen or take-out. Home-cooking always just had that thing that made it taste amazing! It was like magic or not cheap ingredients! While Remus did notice that Janus didn’t give himself a near equal portion and didn’t finish, he assured himself it was probably just that Janus wasn’t that hungry. Yeah, Remus has seen Janus eat. They’d gone on plenty of dinner dates and Janus ate some of the food. Then again, he always went to the bathroom when he finished...Ugh! This is crazy talk, even for Remus, and that was a stretch.

“Rem, you okay? You seem a little stressed.” That calm voice broke through so quickly. What was Remus doing? His stupid spirals were the worst.

“Just, thinking about stuff” It was a weak excuse, but it wasn’t technically a lie.

“Okay, well I’m off to work at the flower shop. I’ll be home by 5:00pm.”

“Alright! It’s my day off, so I’ll be here to see you burnt out and tired of humans.” Remus joked hoping that Janus would please don't bring this up like ever.

“Do you ever regret telling someone something?” A sign and a sarcastic, loop-holey comment. Classic Janus.

“See ya at 5!” With that the conversation was over. Remus was left alone in their apartment with almost nothing to do. The boxes need to broken down and some things still need unpacking but that's so boring. Actually, maybe he could introduce himself to the neighbors across the hall. Of course, he’d have to actually look like he gave two shits about appearances and stuff. Society is a bitch. If a corpse can just wear whatever, why can’t he??

Remus showered, dressed in something that was slightly more socially acceptable than just his underwear. A crop top and booty shorts? Why not! If they're asses about it then he never has to see them. He also decided Jan might like it if he cleaned up breakfast. After all, Remus has to tolerable for his roommate/boyfriend/to-be-fiancé. Only tolerable though, not a shining star or whatever. After the nightmare of figuring out how to wash spoon without flooding the house, he headed to the apartment across hall and knocked like a basic white man.

“Oh! Are you one of the new neighbors?” A soft and friendly face meet his gaze. The golden retriever puppy pretending to be human was short, a little big, and smelled like fresh cookies. Remus almost thought the little thing was a child, but then again being 6’1 makes everyone short, and it's amazing.

“Yeah, I’m Remus Kingsley. Apartment 667”

“Well hiya Remus! That's a fun name. I’m Patton Hearting, and on the couch back there,” Patton pointed to a person reading a book on quantum thingies “ Is my boyfriend Logan Berriman” Remus took a look at Logan. He seemed tall, maybe a little shorter than Remus. He wore rectangular glasses, a dark blue vest with a stripped tie, and office pants. Logan was pale, dark-haired and looked like a male version of the girl from the ring with a hair cut.

“It’s nice to meet you two. I hope we can talk when my boyfriend isn’t at work.” Might as well spill the beans since they’re gay too. Probably listen to Heather and everything.

“We’d love to meet him! Right Lo?” Patton said turning back to face his companion. Patton had the brightest look on his face from what Remus could see, might as well be a lamp.

“Hm? Oh, yes, that would be adequate” Logan said dismissively, returning his nerd book. Rude.

“Well, he’s coming back at 5. Maybe you two could stop by at six and we can eat together? Jan is really good at cooking.” Would Janus be miffed about this? Absolutely. Did Janus also like to know who people are? Yep. Maybe it would even out? Well, it wouldn't but he could hope.

“Alright we’ll see you then. Bye!” Patton closed door and Remus walked back to the apartment to text Janus about their visitors. They were nice, maybe Patton was a bit much, on the opposite end of the much spectrum from Remus.

—————————————

Janus got home in a surprisingly good mood. After all, cooking was one of those things that he just enjoyed to no end. He took off his scratchy and overly saturated work uniform and put on a simple pale yellow dress shirt and black dress pants. He could keep his shoes on. Janus briefly considered covering up his vitiligo before deciding to just not waste the makeup. Who really cares?

“Hey Jan, you talk and cook?” Remus’ voice startled Janus a little but, he caught himself. "Also, can i have a little taste?"

“Yeah, do you need to talk about something? And no, you wait.”

“I just wanted to tell about the neighbors”

“Well, go right ahead and include everything”

The food was basically ready. While Janus said repeatedly it wasn’t his best, Remus insisted it was amazing even though he never tasted it. Remus settled for a big hug, Janus knew it was his partners love language. It was a nice looking, light meal. Grilled chicken, with steamed vegetables that were still steaming, mashed potatoes, and some optional gravy. They had to push around some furniture but made room for a 4 person dining table, decorated by Remus with an askew and slightly threadbare table cloth. It wasn’t exactly perfect but that’s what made it Remus’ work. It could be better.

—————————————

The doorbell rang and Logan and Patton stepped in. Patton had made cookies for dessert with the help of Logan desperately trying to not let Patton burn himself on the hot plate. The dinner went well, the conversation was lively and they didn’t even mind Remus’ corpse jokes. Logan even said he was impressed with Remus’ sickening biological knowledge. Overall the visit was a great thing and both couples were glad to know there were more rainbows in the building. Going to sleep that night Janus and Remus both sleep soundly and exhausted. A successful day.

[finalgirlguy]

Be like Logan

Be interested. Enjoy reading. Get excited when you learn about something new. Be proud of your knowledge. Don’t let other people’s lack of interest end yours. Drink tea. Stay up all night finishing a book. Wear cardigans. Don’t be ashamed of your glasses. Find beauty in the simple, in the well structured. Find pleasure in organising bookshelves or tables. Help those who don’t understand matters you do. Have silly interests too, like jam.Do research on stuff that interests you. Read poetry. Find time in your schedule to organise your things. Care for your mental and physical health. Eat vegetables. Meditate. Sleep enough. Be productive.

Be like Patton.

Be kind. Be sweet. Smile a lot. Eat candies here and there, because life is short, might as well make it short and fun. Enjoy cartoons. Be childish. Be the mom(/dad?) friend. Learn how to cook. Turn into an adult without being any less of a child. Love kittens. Love puppies. Be adorable. Understand your emotions. Don’t suppress your sadness. Cry. Smile. Don’t feel ashamed for feeling. Be amazed by it, because it means you’re human, you’re a person, you’re a deep complex person, with emotions. Tell your loved ones you love them. Stick to your sense of right and wrong. Try your best to not hurt people. Give a chance to the introverts, to the quiet ones, to the less likely to be your friends, because they are also deep complex persons, and might turn into your best friends. Plant flowers. Wear flowy skirts. Tell awful puns. Make people smile.

Be like Roman.

Be loud. Be proud. Work hard. Love yourself. Chase your dreams. Love old Disney movies, because they remind you of the feeling of hope they gave you when you were just a kid. Be romantic. Be sensual. Understand your body. Don’t be afraid of love. Don’t be ashamed of your lack of love. Love others, yes, but love yourself first. Take care of your ego. Don’t let it get over your head. Sing loudly in the shower. Write, a lot. Write everything that comes into your mind. Draw, and who cares if it’s good or not, you made it! Put on loud music when you’re home alone and dance, dance like no one is watching, because no one is, and it’s just you, your mirror and your passion. Be passionate. Work on looking good. Understand that moving on doesn’t mean moving forward. Understand that you can’t reach all your dreams, yet never give up on them. Pursue what makes you happy, be it dancing, singing, acting, drawing, sports, friends. You are the main course. Don’t be ashamed of bringing attention to yourself. Give a second chance to those who may not seem “your type”.

Be like Virgil.

Be cautious, but don’t let that ruin you. Be quiet. Understand what’s going on in your head. Be ready to get out of somewhere running, but also be willing to save your friends in danger. Listen to dark, emo, punk music, because they make you feel stuff, they understand you, they have been through the same as you. Don’t be afraid to warn someone. Learn to open up. Don’t be afraid to call people out on their bs. Wear dark clothes. Enjoy Halloween. Enjoy the rush of adrenaline in your body as you get scared. Embrace comfort. Understand it’s okay to be scared, it’s okay to not want to go to a party, take your time, work through your fears, stay in your comfort zone for as long as you want. Make friends who make you comfortable. Don’t be afraid to be moody. Don’t be afraid to be angsty. Don’t be afraid to look different. Enjoy the silence. Enjoy not having eyes on you. Enjoy those screaming lyrics, because, no matter how hostile they may seem, they make you feel welcome Be like Thomas.

Be a complex, deep person. Work through your problems. Find ways to work through them. Don’t be afraid to search, or find, or understand your identity. Make an effort to take care of yourself and your responsibilities. Don’t let your anxiety stop you from having any fun. Make small promises to yourself, and try to stick to them. Analyse your favourite movies, and have fun doing it. Learn how to balance your need to help the others and your need to work on your own stuff. Don’t get desperate for a bf/gf/so only for a date. Don’t let your procrastination get the best out of you. Try to create new ideas, but don’t get so frustrated when you can’t come up with something 100% original. Don’t let your negativity make you overthink your entire life. Don’t be scared of growing up, don’t be scared of new responsibilities, because you’re also getting better at dealing with them. Don’t be scared of changes, and know that you will always have those people that you can go back to, be it your family, your friends, your lover. Learn to manage, and understand, your anxiety. Fit inside a box, if you want to, if that makes you feel welcome, or don’t, if you don’t believe you fit perfectly inside certain categories. Comprehend and embrace your emotions, and piece by piece, one day at a time, move on from someone you used to love, or still love, and understand that falling back once in a while doesn’t mean you’ve gone all the way back. Moving on is not the same as moving forward. Try to be honest, try to not deceive others. Learn to balance your chase for dreams and your practicality. Look for new ways to work through your trouble, and learn to never belittle yourself, and don’t get so frustrated when you can’t solve a problem right away. Embrace your phases, because they built you up, you are everything you’ve ever been; whatever you are right now is valid. Understand you are not completely innocent, but strive for honesty. Always strive for a better mental health.

Be like you.

@thatsthat24

[rosettahart]

Glass-says: Chapter 15

Chapter 1, Chapter 14

Ao3 link

Summary: Logan and Patton's first date.

Warnings: Implied Anxiety Attack and Mention of Death

Chapter 15

Patton squeezed Logan's arm as he watched Virgil and Princey. He couldn't help but bounce up and down. "They're so cute!"

Logan squinted at the pair, pushing his glasses up. "Is that not just…"

"It's their first time meeting in person! They've waited so long and now they're finally together!" Patton pulled Logan along behind him back across the room towards the doors.

Logan frowned. "None of you are aware of the situation?" He glanced back at Virgil and Roman before returning his attention to Patton. "Are we not going to stay here to dance as well?"

Patton giggled, opening the door to the theatre and leading his crush into the space and up the stairs onto the stage. "After some time thinking about it Virgil thought it might look a little funny to others if you looked like you were dancing by yourself, so he came up with a solution." He let go of his arm, holding up his hands excitedly. "Wait here."

Logan gave a curt nod as he watched Patton quickly make his way up to the soundbooth. "I suppose this is indeed the preferable option to the gym. It is much quieter and with plenty of room in which to move around."

Patton rushed back down after starting the music on the playlist he had scrambled together earlier, jumping up the stairs to get onto the stage. 

Logan held his hand out for Patton. "Shall we dance?"

Patton nodded, putting his hand in Logan's with a grin, resting his other hand on his shoulder like Virgil had shown him to. "Virgil tried showing me how while I was helping him get ready." He chuckled apologetically when they both moved to step forward with opposite feet. "Did I say tried?"

"You happened to, yes." Logan adjusted Patton's grip and the placement of his hand on his shoulder. "As I am the one leading I take the first step forward with my left foot and you take one back with your right. Then you are to take a step the same way with the opposite foot and after that your feet are to come together."

Patton watched Logan's feet thoughtfully as he tried to follow his instructions, sticking out his tongue as he did. He stumbled as he miss-stepped, laughing at his own clumsiness. "It looks like I'm all tangoed up. Could you maybe tell me how to do it again, Lo? I think I almost got it."

"This is not a tango." Logan sighed. "I do not understand why you requested me to be your date to a dance when you yourself do not know how."

"I thought it'd be fun." Patton shrugged.

Logan shook his head then let go of Patton's hand for a moment to push up his glasses. "We will take this at a slower pace to start and when you become confident in your movements we'll bring it to meet the tempo of the music."

Patton gave a nod. "Where do we start?"

Logan nudged Patton's foot back. "With one," he then pushed Patton's other foot back diagonally to be in line with the other, "two," he moved the foot Patton had started back on to meet the other one, "three and then…" Logan stepped back with his right foot.

Patton stepped forward. "Four." He looked up at Logan with a grin. 

Logan gave a nod, moving his left foot back and then over to meet the other, making sure Patton was doing the same except forwards. "And five, six."

Patton started to get the hang of it with Logan's feet guiding his own and the nice gradual speeding up of the logical nerd's soft counting. The counting became steady when they had caught up to the tempo of the song.

"Now you know the basic box step."

Patton giggled, confident enough now to take his eyes off his feet for a few seconds to look up at Logan.  "Guess we're both boxing ourselves in."

Logan squinted, glancing around them confusedly for a moment. "Boxing ourselves into what?"

"So when did ya learn how to dance?" Patton asked, slowing down his pace when the song changed. 

"I learned how when I was eleven. My dad thought I should know so I would be prepared in case an event that called for that knowledge ever arised." Logan explained.

"What was he like?" 

Logan faltered slightly then corrected himself while in thought over the question.

"Oh, sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't feel comfortable answering. You've just mentioned your dad before and I'm just a little curious what he was like." Patton quickly added.

"He was sort of like you." Logan replied quietly. "Without all the word play though and not as… energetic."

Patton smiled softly. "He sounds like a neat guy."

Logan gave a nod, his eyes unfocused, still in thought. "I am sure the two of you would have gotten along quite well."

"Logan?"

Logan looked down to meet Patton's gaze.

"I bet he's really proud of you and who you're becoming." Patton mentioned, unsure why he had felt the need to say it, but feeling like it was the right thing to say.

Logan completely stopped dancing, focusing on pushing away any thoughts of his dad. This was not the time to be remembering him or dwelling on the past. He had already spent more time than he should have doing so.

Patton moved his arms so he could hug Logan. "I'm sorry, Lo. I didn't mean to-"

Logan cleared his throat, gently shifting Patton back away from him. "I am certain he is. There would be no reason why he would not be."

Patton nodded unsurely as he watched Logan. He rested his hand back on Logan's shoulder as he rested one of his own on Patton's waist, taking his hand quietly.

Logan searched for something to say to break the silence, his eyes stopping on their hands. "Shall I spin you around?"

Patton's face brightened back up. "You shall."

Logan gave a slight nod, leading Patton into it. His lips twitched up as the ghost giggled. "I wonder how naturally this comes to you. Being able to still touch and hold my hand amongst other things." He pondered out loud.

Patton shrugged. "With Virgil, Roman and you, I don't really have to try. Though it took me a while to be able to lift even just little things."

"I see… Have you ever tried lifting Virgil or Roman up in any way?"

"I have emotionally," Patton chuckled, "But I've never picked either of them up before." He grinned. "Would you like me to try?"

"For research purposes I would-"

Before Logan could finish his response Patton was already sweeping an arm under Logan's legs, surprised he was actually managing to keep him up in his arms.

Logan blinked, surprised himself. "That was adequate."

"It's like you don't weigh anything." Patton bounced Logan up a bit with a laugh. 

Logan squirmed uncomfortably, pushing himself out of Patton's arms and straightening his suit. "Well that is enough of that and I shall remember to make a new note of that ability."

Patton beamed, bouncing up and down. "Now you do me."

"I am certain the answer to if I could lift you is fairly clear already. As you are weightless it would only carry similar results."

Patton's eyes widened. "You made a pun!"

"I-" Logan exhaled. "That was not intentional."

Patton pulled out the puppy eyes along with a slight pout. "Please will you pick me up?"

Logan begrudgingly gave into Patton's request. "I suppose you've given into plenty of my own requests so it would only be fair to give into some of yours." 

Patton wrapped his arms over Logan's shoulders, hardly containing his excitement at being held bridal style in his date's arms. "Best date ever."

"As this is the only date I have been on I have nothing of which to compare this one to. Though 'fun' was promised and I did enjoy spending some time with you." Logan mentioned. 

"Enough to go on a second date…?"

Logan met Patton's gaze. "As long as it is properly planned out with plenty of time beforehand." 

Patton gave Logan a quick kiss on the cheek, his eyes sparkling. "I promise it will be. I'll-"

One of the doors to the theatre flew open, Virgil rushing in with his mask in his one hand. His hair and suit were disheveled and his makeup was smeared down his cheeks, his body visibly shaking.

Patton quickly moved over to rub his arms. "What's wrong, Virgil? Did something happen?"

"Ci ran off. I-I don't what I did o-or I said, but he left and I don't know if I'll… or if he'll ever-"

"Its going to be okay, kiddo. Just breathe for me, okay?" Patton gently guided him into one of the audience chairs as Logan got down off the stage beside them.

"I apologize, but I am going to find Roman as I need to be back home soon. I will see you both next week." Logan bowed his head apologetically.

Patton gave a nod in understand before sitting down beside Virgil to start calming him down.

Logan made his exit, knowing where to go to find Roman and that he'd have to be quick to catch him before he left.

~

Roman practically dove into his car when he got to it. He aggressively threw his mask into the back seat and undid his tie, sending it back to join his mask and soon his suit jacket followed as well. Before he could put the car into reverse a knock on the passenger sides window just about gave him a heart attack.

Logan was standing beside the car with an intense glare directed right at Roman.

Roman swallowed, uneasily unlocking the car so Logan could get in.

Logan opened and door and sat down. "You are going to explain exactly what happened." 

Roman nodded, knowing if he left anything important out the nerd would murder him with just his gaze alone. "Okay."

Chapter 16

Author's notes: Wasn't sure if I was going to post the update here or not but after over a week of being up on ao3 it's here. So I'd recommend if you'd like to follow this fic to follow it over there. Though I should for certain be putting he link to over there when new chapters are up here.

Taglist:

@kittiebrick

@absolutesandersidestrash

[celmation-gibson]

The First Drawing to post for this New Decade, and it's the Best of the Movies that I've seen in the Cinemas, and one I've heard of for a while. So here are some Favorite Characters of mine that were fun to Draw, along with the Reviews for the Films.

Missing Link - My First movie to see in the Cinemas of this Year, and it's another Laika Classic, and despite being a Box Office flop, It did receive some very Good Reviews from Critics, and even my Foodtown Boss' Grandchildren saw the Film on a Thursday(?) and they Loved it, so I figured I give this film a watch, and I was amazed at the Final result, An Amazing sight to see that some Folks out there don't know what their Missing. It was directed by Chris Butler, who was co-Director of Laika's other projects 'ParaNorman', and it had an Amazing cast such as Mr. Zach Galifianakis (Felix of 'Bob's Burgers' & Lego Joker of 'the Lego Batman Movie'), Zoe Saldana(Avatar, Gaurdians of the Galaxy), & Hugh Jackman (Van Helsing & Wolverine of the live-Action 'X-Men' films). And once again, the Folks of Laika really did some good Work & Commitment in Making this Film, especially when I loved the Film's settings & Landscaping, and the Action Sequences are Phenomenal, especially in those Action sequences when the Ship rotates with the People in it when it was Struck with the Storm's Big Wave, and How Suspenseful it was when the Characters are dangled into Ice blocks or big icicles, and how shocking on how the Villains' defeat of Lord Piggot-Dunceby, his neurotic right-hand man Mr. Collick, and Bounty Hunter Willard Stenk were killed in Cold Blood, cuz I knew that that Ice Bridge in the Film was gonna Break in a Sequence. Plus there were some Cute Humor in the Film as well, especially after when Mr. Link/Susan Roared at a Dog during a Bar Fight, and after a Moment of Silence, the Dog just attacked on of his Men and the Bar Fight continues (that's when most kids in the Auditorium laughed at that part), and how Susan literally thrown some Objects over the Wall. And I'm always fascinated with Cryptozoology creatures such as Bigfoot, Abominable Snowmen, & the Loch Ness Monster, even when they make me think about that 1970's film entitled 'the Mysterious Monsters'. And even if the film was Distributed by United Artists (a Subsidiary of MGM I suppose), it's kinda Weird now now that it was released on DVD and Blu-Ray from 20th Century Fox, even after Disney's Conquest, but can we still call ML a Non-Disney film, even if some MGM films are being released by FOX under a Contract?

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Well me and my dad certainly love Giant Monster movies when we were Young, and I certainly remember renting every Godzilla movie on VHS back when Blockbuster was still around, and we certainly enjoyed that one 2014 'Godzilla' movie, unlike the 1998 Matthew Broderick one, so we decided to give this new kaiju movie 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' a viewing pleasure, not to be confused with the 1956 Americanized 'Gojira' movie starring Raymond Burr. And i gotta say that it was an Epic Thrill-ride of our Lives, even the monsters we were familiar with were Amazing, Godzilla being all greatly Huge and Buffed-up as always in the USA, Rodan looking a-little Sinister lookin', Mothra playing out like the original 'Mothra' movie, starting off as a larva hatching from her Egg, then Evolving into a beautiful Butterfly-like Moth, then King Ghidorah was so Menacing in this one, and being like Lizzie in 'Rampage', he was such a "Pain-in-the-Ass" character, even once being Nicknamed 'Monster Zero', either that Nickname was also used in Japan, or used for one of Ghidorah's old film appearances in the US, that was double-billed with 'War of the Gargantuas'. I even like how they referenced some stuff from Warner Bros. & Legendary Films' 'Kong: Skull Island', as that films along with the 2014 Godzilla, and this Film are all in the same Universe, Monsterverse that is. And how surprising that there are other Kaijus in this Movie that I'm not even certainly familiar about, like that one Arachnid-like featured titan, or the Giant Ape Body/Mammoth Trunk beast, or another Muto(?), and I am wondering if the Demolished Boston at the end of the movie is gonna be the new 'Monster Island'. The human characters were good, I mostly like every member on the character Dr. Mark Russell's team, they seem likable, and the Cast was great, even after looking at the film's Poster befor we went inside the theater, I saw the familiar name of Thomas Middleditch, the same man who did voices in 'Captain Underpants' & 'Bob's Burgers', doing a Live-action role, and while writing this review, I've discovered some other actress who starred in this film include Sally Hawkins, who starred in the previous 2014 Godzilla movie, and also in Guillermo del Toro's 'the Shape of Water, and the woman playing the daughter in this film, also played in 'Stranger Things' as Eleven. And also I love on how the film as a Newer Version of Godzilla's approach-like film that was used in the old films, and even the end Credits have Cover version of Blue Oyester Cult's classic hit 'Godzilla'. And one of the Film's story plot is Fascinating, like how this Earth was once ruled by Giant Titans, until us small Humans have taken over while most of those Titans went Extinct and hiding in the Earth's Spirit.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 - Well, Illumination has done it again, as it Amuses me once before with 'the Grinch', 'Despicable Me 2', 'the Secret Life of Pets', & 'Sing', they have released a Sequel to my Favorite Secret Life of Pets movie that I saw in theaters back in 2016, and now have it on DVD. And when I heard that the Original voice for Max got replaced with a Guy I know of who has a Great Career in Animation, I was like "Whuuut?", but even after reading what Happened to that one Guy, i figured I'd give this Movie a Watch, since I'll like Patton even more. And I gotta say, this Sequel does have some Cute and Lovable moments in the Film, and those Subplots in the Film are Wonderful, leading up to a Story on how to save a White Tiger cub from a Wicked Ringmaster (voiced by Funny voice man, Mr. Nick Kroll(Sausage Party, Sing, Captain Underpants). And Snowball is more luvable in this one as he is in the first Film (Kevin Hart is so Wonderful!), even teaming up with a Cute/Funny character such as Daisy, a Shih Tzu voiced by Tiffany Haddish (who just did a guest voice role in 'Bob's Burgers'). Also with a Cute story on how Max & Duke's owner fall in Love with a Fun Gentleman and have a Kid together, and I love how the Dogs raised the Boy up, by helping him to Crawl & walk, and have Good Animal Instincts, which makes me think that what if my Sister & her Husband had a Pet Puppy that could be a good a Good Companion to my Little Layla niece. And some of the Parts in the Film have Good humor in it, like did I just heard a Cow say "Rat Turd" in front of an auditorium full of Young children? Plus Mr. Harrison Ford(Han Solo in 'Star Wars' & Indiana Jones) was great as a character named Rooster, who tries to Man/Brave up Max and a few characters, after Max has devoted his Life to Little Liam, which led to the Funny Collar on his head. And I'd figured there was something Familiar about that Young Lamb Cotton's voice in the Movie, as he is voiced by Mr. Sean Giambrone, the voice of Jeff in 'Clarence' & Shermy in the 'Adventure Time' series Finale.

Abominable - Well, Dreamworks has done it again, a new film from a Creative Team was made and about to be released soon, and when I saw the Previews of it for the First time, I thought I wasn't too interested in it, especially with the humorous Blueberry gag parts. But after a while, and see that if it looked cuter as Dreamworks' previous film 'Home(2015)', I thought I give it a go, and hopefully it look way better than that one Weird-Looking film in 1995 called 'to catch a Yeti' starring Meatloaf. But for the 'Abominable' film, since the Movie was getting Good Feedback from Reviewers and Viewers, I was Lucky to watch the Film for myself. The Characters were Cute and Funny, almost like the ones from 'Home', especially with Ethnic Protagonists. And the settings and Designs of Asia in the Open Fields, Forests, and Cities are really nice, wishing I could visit and/or live there. And the Great story is like an E.T. Extra Terrestrial thing, expect that the Heroes goes with the Creatures on an Adventure of a lifetime to bring back the Creature to his Beloved Family that they Tried to protect from any threats what's-so-ever. And there are some Amazing plot Twist among the Villainous Characters, like just when you thought the villain was actually an elderly Man who has been hunting Mythical creatures for rewards, but it turns out that the True Villain was actually a Nerdy Woman who thought was a seemingly-gentle Scientist just doing what's right for the World, who almost Barely looks like a geeky version of Kari McKeen of Disney/Pixar's 'the Incredibles', and when she let down her Hair, she may look like a Devious version of Merida of Disney/Pixar's 'Brave'. The Effects in the Movie is Super Nice & Super Awesome, especially in the Yeti's Humming effects, some Action Sequences, and that one moment when the Heroine's Father's Violin broke, the Yeti fixes it by using his own Hair for the String replacements, and I know from that Moment, with Yi's Musical skills and the Yeti's Powers combined, and when the Hearts are Full, and the Heavens are listening, Magic is bound to happen. And for the one other part when the Heroes are Gazing into the Stars, they say that the Stars could be our Ancestors watching over us, and that if we don't see any Stars in the Sky, there will be always there for us, almost like even if for some Folks lost their Love ones, they will always be there, even if we can't see them. But I'm glad i enjoyed the Movie, and I know that some Tween kid group enjoyed it as well, laughing at some Funny Parts in which i enjoyed, sometimes with the Woofing Snakes, "WOOF, there it is, WOOF, there it is".

the Addams Family - Well, a another Fantastic new Animated feature has been made, and it's based off of what I remember from my Childhood, cuz I do remember watching the early 1990's Live-Action movies of the Creepy Family starrring Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci, before I knew who some of the Actors were, and I remember the Animated Hanna-Barbera Kooky series on Cartoon Network a while back, even making a Spooky Guest appearance in 'the New Scooby-Doo Movies', but I haven't watched much of their old Ookie Live-action series, and the Family I'm talking about is 'the Addams Family'. And I've read a while back that an Animated CGI feature is gonna be released soon, and I knew back there that that would be interesting for me to see, so I've waited several months for the to be released in Cinemas, and I finally got a chance to do so. It was a Fun and Entertaining movie, and surprising it was made Directed and made by the same team who did the 2016 R-rated Animated film 'Sausage Party' starring Seth Rogan & Kristen Wiig, and the Character designs for the Film were to be based off the old design from the Original Addams Family comics in the old days, and with modern help from Mr. Craig Kellman(Hotel Transylvania, Madagascar). And the voice cast is amazing, we got Mr. Nick Kroll(Captain Underpants) voicing Uncle Fester, Chloe Grace Moretz(Kick-Ass) as Wednesday Addams, Finn Wilfhard(IT, "Beep, Beep, Richie") as Pugsley Addams, Charlize Theron(Kubo and the Two Strings) as Morticia Addams, Bette Midler(Hocus Pocus) as Grandmama, Snoop Dogg as Cousin Itt, Elsie Fisher(Despicable Me) as Parker Needler, even the film's co-director Mr. Conrad Vernon as Lurch ("YYYOOOOOOUUUUUUU RRRAAAAANNNGGGG?!", LOL!!!), a priest that presides over Gomez and Mortica's wedding, the spirit that haunted the abandoned asylum that Gomez and Morticia move into (who often threatened them to get out, much to the family's delight, which i find those Parts to be entirely Hilarious, even in the Theater's Booming Stereo), and Dr. Flambe, a Devil-like relative of the Addams family with fire-like abilities. And the Film's Story is very cute, even with the Film's Opening Scenes on the Origin story of the Addams Family and their "Creative Differences" with other Societies, and it gives me some Good comparisons with Sony's 'Hotel Transylvania' as Creepy Creatures who have lived through the Centuries and Years soon get into Modern times and how other people dealt with Beings like the Monsters of HT and the Addams Family and their Clan. And it would be nice if my Parents were watching the Film with me in the Theaters, cuz during the Film's Ending, me and the people in the Auditorium got a chance to sing-along with the Film's Theme Song, and everyone was Snapping their Fingers to the tune. So If you wanna celebrate Halloween in a Great and Wonderful way, I think that this film is for you, and for all you Goth, Emo, and Young-at-Heart Artists out their who would love a Creepy Treat, and just can't wait to get it on DVD. Klaus - To come clear, I've heard about this movie, and I've even seen some Pencil Tests of it way back then, but I've actually never seen the whole thing, or catch it in a Selected Theater, but I really did see the Film's Trailer. And I would say for a 2D, Hand-Drawn, Frame-by-Frame, Animated feature, these people tried to Improve something for the Classic Animation with their Coloring and Shading type Technique, and even though It's a wonderful Improvement, I wouldn't expect some folks to use this kind of thing more often for Future Celmated Features. As for the Voice cast, I already know who Mr. J.K. Simmons is, but I was surprised to read that the voice man for Mr. Jesper Johansson, is also the guy who played the Villianous Gideon Graves of 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' movie.

And sorry if I didn't catch 'IT: Chapter 2' like I did with the first one, But I'm hoping o see some more clips of it online. And I Never had interest in seeing the 2019 'Child's Play', though I still like Ms. Aubrey Plaza & Mr. Mark Hamill. And I had no interest in seeing 'the Angry Birds Movie 2' since I'm never a Big Fan of Thurop Van Orman's creativity. And lastly, I didn't felt like seeing the 'Spies in Disguise' movie ever since Disney's Horrible Conquest of the whole 20th Century Fox media.

[abused-virgil-oneshots]

Patton’s Perfect Family- Chapter 7- Dresses and Suits part one

Masterpost

TW: ropes, forced marriage, Trans!Roman, talks of punishment, makeup, forcing people to wear a dress, tying someone down

written by @wittlevirgilsanders

“Logie?” Patton sings, knocking on Logan’s bedroom door with one hand and balancing a stack of boxes with the other.

“Come in Patton.” Logan sighs tiredly, resting his chin in his hand as he stared at the wall.

Patton nudges open the door and bounds into the room with a smile. “Aww, c'mon, you can’t still be sad Logan! Cheer up! I have a surprise for yoooou.”

A surprise. Logan didn’t like the sounds of that.

“Yes? Patton?” Logan asks wearily, swiveling around in his chair.

“We’re getting married today!” Patton squeals. Logan almost falls out of his chair.

“What?”

“We’re getting married!” Patton sets the boxes down on Logan’s desk, patting each one individually with a loving smile on his face. “The smallest is obviously my ring, and I have yours! And then there’s your dress and your shoes!”

“Dress?” Logan felt his throat going dry. “But…”

“But what? C'mon Logie, boys can wear dresses too!” Patton quickly kisses Logan on the forehead, beginning to rush out the door. “My friend will come get you when everything’s ready! By Logie-bear!”

“But I don’t feel…comfortable in dresses…” Logan mutters, opening the dress box and pulling out the dress.

It only had one strap and it was mostly backless except for four fabric pieces that Logan could only guess were to help keep the dress up.

It was mainly black, but at the bottom it faded into white, which faded into a dark blue the same colour of his tie.

Logan knew the dress was nice, but it looked absolutely horrendous because Patton expected him to wear that.

Couldn’t Logan just wear his normal shirt and tie?

Wait, no, Logan didn’t want to wear anything to the wedding, because he didn’t want to go at all.

How could he even think such a thing? He couldn’t be settling into life with Patton, that was crazy!

Shakily, he undresses and pulls the dress over his head and down. Logan was practically shocked to find the dress’s texture was so smooth, and flowy.

And when Logan shakes his hips slightly, the dress swishes.

He wasn’t enjoying himself, was he?

Logan pauses and stares up at the large full sized mirror on the wall.

How could he possibly be enjoying himself with something as silly as a dress moving, when he was about to be forced into a marriage with a man Logan was pretty sure wasn’t stable.

He was never going to see the sun again, or feel the breeze.

Or see the stars.

Logan’s vision blurs as tears fill his eyes.

He was never going to smell dirt again, or be able to go swimming in the Pacific like he had always wanted.

Logan’s knees buckle and he collapses into his chair, a low and horrible moan of anguish echoing through his room as a scream came from Virgil and Damien’s room.

“I’m not putting it on!” Virgil screams, holding onto on the the bed posts for dear life while a slowly getting more angry Patton tries to pry him off.

“It’s just a dress, Virgey.” Patton coos softly, trying to soothe Virgil and control his own anger. “Come on Virgil, you’re going to look so pretty!”

“That dress is for a six year old!” Virgil screeches, “And I don’t wear dresses you psycho!”

“Dami?” Patton asks with gritted teeth, “Can you please talk to your brother while I go calm down?”

Letting go of Virgil, Patton storms out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Damien fixes his tie once more, his eyes nervously darting around the room, before finally landing on Virgil, who glares at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Virgil bites out, seething. “You can’t just roll over like a puppy and do everything he tells you too!”

“Yes, I can.” Damien bites back, surprising Virgil slightly with his sudden new tone. “You don’t think I miss home too? I’m just trying not to get myself killed before the cops find us! Can’t you just put on the stupid dress and put a nice smile on your face?”

Virgil stares at him for a moment longer before his gaze hardened. “I’m not gonna be like you. That’s not true. Patton wouldn’t kill me. I’m going to get out of here.”

Damien looks down at his dress shoes and sighs, standing and knocking on the door.

Patton opens it and Damien speed walks past him.

Patton shuts the door softly and stares at Virgil. “You didn’t put on the dress.”

“No.” Virgil bites out, “I’m not wearing a dumb fucking kids dress!”

Patton’s gaze grows cold, and he grabs onto Virgil’s hand tightly.

“You know how I feel about language, Virgey.” Patton spits out, digging his nails into Virgil’s arm, making Virgil cry out in pain. “I will punish you for that later. Now, you have ten seconds to put that dress on, or I will put it on for you. One.”

Virgil sits completely still, still glaring and trying to control his racing heartbeat.

“Two.” Patton says lowly, feeling a type of anger he rarely felt. Why did Virgil want to ruin his big day? He should be happy for them!

“Three!” Patton roars, grabbing Virgil by the arms and practically ripping his shirt and jacket off him.

Virgil screams out in more shock then anything else, he couldn’t believe Patton was really doing this!

Patton puts the dress over his head and pulls Virgil’s arms out before pulling the dress down. Virgil was shaking madly by that time, but Patton ignores him and pulls off his pants.

“There,” Patton says, finally getting calmer, “You look so nice!”

He reaches onto the desk and grabs the matching purple headband, putting it on Virgil.

“Now, you need to put your socks and shoes on.” Patton orders, holding the shoe box and pair of nice white socks with frills out to Virgil.

Virgil lets out a small squeak and throws himself onto his bed, howling and sobbing. Patton rolls his eyes and puts the socks and shoes on Virgil, the pretty silver shoes sending little refractions of light across the room, making rainbows dance on the walls.

“Roman?” Damien slowly opened the door to Roman’s room, peeking inside.

Roman was sitting shock still on his bed, staring blankly at the wall and wearing a long red dress with long lace sleeves with red flowers embroidered on them.

“Roman?” Damien stepped closer to Roman, who looked over at him, his eyes filled with tears.

“I promised I wouldn’t wear a dress again.” He said, his voice cracking as a few tears rolled down his cheeks.

Damien sits next to Roman, who pulls the younger boy into a hug, sniffling. After a moment they both pull away, and Roman wipes away his tears.

“Ohh, look at you!” Patton squeals. The two look up and over at the doorway, where Patton was standing, tightly holding Virgil by his side. Virgil’s eyes were bright red from the crying.

“Well, it’s almost time.” Patton announces, “Damien, can you come help me? And Roman, could you do something to get Virgil’s eyes looking less red?”

Damien stands and heads over to Patton, who lets go of Virgil and leads him out of the room.

Virgil stands frozen in the doorway as Patton and Damien leave.

Roman stands and gently pulls Virgil into the room. “C'mon. We have to do as he says.”

Roman gently pushes Virgil down onto his desk chair. Opening one of the drawers, he pulls out a bunch of different makeups, applying them onto Virgil, who sits and stares off into space, not reacting at all.

Finally, Virgil looked like his normal self.

“It’s time!” Patton sings, wearing a beautiful baby blue wedding dress.

Virgil immediately snaps out of his haze. “I’m not. Going out there. In a dress.”

Patton sighs and quickly enters, walking over to Virgil. Virgil turns to grab onto Roman’s bedpost, and Patton quickly grabs him under the arms, lifting the squirming boy and beginning to carry him out of the room.

Roman follows him out, embarrassed for himself, but even more embarrassed for Virgil.

Virgil flails around in Patton’s grip, kicking wildly as he’s carried to the living room where Damien already sat, nervously perched on one of the dining room chairs they had moved earlier.

Patton sets Virgil down on one of the chairs, and Virgil bolts up.

“Jason?” Patton calls in the direction of the kitchen, pulling Virgil back onto the chair. “Can you bring the ropey-thingy?”

Virgil and Roman look up in confusion as a taller man, almost as tall as Logan, walks into the room, carrying a long white rope made out of what looked like silk.

Said Jason grabs Virgil’s arms as he tries again to get out of the chair and bring them behind, and Patton ties his hands, and then his feet to the chair.

Roman’s mouth hangs open for the whole process. “Patton, this is insane! You can’t do this!”

Patton looks up at Roman, a testing gaze in his eyes. “Why not? He’s my son.”

“He’s thirteen and you can’t just tie him to a chair!” Roman finally feels some of the fighting spirit he had before his punishment returning. “And you can’t force someone to marry you either!”

Words: 1530

@jasondeanstwin

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@ginnyfox617

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[perspective-series]

Injured Perspective (6/19)

By: @arc852 and @hiddendreamer67

Warnings: I don’t think anything...? Certainly nothing new

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter

————————————————————————————-

 “I’m back!” Patton called out when he got home. He glanced at the clock, seeing he was just in time for lunch. Perfect. He loved that his summer classes were shorter. He was always off at around noon everyday.

 He went to his room and smiled down at Logan, who was still in the box, thank goodness. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

“What have you done with Virgil?” Logan asked immediately, not bothering to answer the human’s question.

 Patton blinked before smiling softly. “He’s okay, don’t worry. I gave him to Roman and Roman will take good care of him.” Patton explained. “Now, how are you feeling? Did you get any rest?” Patton asked again.

“I will not rest while you keep me and my friend captive.” Logan’s glare would likely have been more menacing if he didn’t have to pause to wipe at his nose.

 Patton frowned. “Aww, come on little guy, don’t be like that.” He leaned in a bit closer. “I’m just trying to help. Your friend is in good hands.” He was still disappointed that Logan didn’t seem to trust him but he was sure they would get there eventually.

 “Well, are you hungry? I can make you some lunch before I go to Roman’s?”

“I do not require sustenance.” Logan’s frown deepened, even as his stomach growled. 

 Patton smiled a little. “Well, your stomach begs to differ.” Patton turned to leave. “I’ll make you a little something while I make Roman’s lunch!”  Patton went off the the kitchen to get started.

“Traitor.” Logan muttered, looking down at his stomach.

 Virgil once again waited until Patton was out of the room to pull himself onto the desk. He climbed up the opposite of where Patton could see, since he knew it would take him a while without his hook.

 He ran up to the box, all the while looking for his hook on the desk. His eyes caught the familiar glint and he grinned. Well, maybe his luck was finally turning around. He went over and grabbed it. “Logan!” He called out quietly as he went back over to the box.

Logan’s head immediately raised, certain he was hearing things now as he glanced around. “...Virgil?”

 “Look out!” Virgil warned before throwing the hook up and into the box. He figured he would skip the middle step of getting into the box himself and just let Logan climb out.

Logan quickly scrambled to get the hook, throwing it up and latching it like before. Once at the top he peered over the edge, still shocked to see Virgil was actually present.

“How did you escape?” Logan asked in amazement, climbing carefully down the outside of the box. He had been certain they both would be goners.

 Virgil bit his lip. “I uh...I didn’t. Roman let me go.” He was still having a hard time believing it.

“What?” Logan said incredulously. “Why? How? And wait a moment-” Logan took this aforementioned moment to glare disapprovingly at Virgil. “Why did you actually request to be put in a human bean’s care?”

 “I...panicked?” Virgil shrugged before shaking his head. “Look, we can talk later. We need to get out of here before Patton comes back.” He grabbed the hook and then Logan’s hand and dragged him towards the edge of the desk.

 Unlucky for them, that was when the bedroom door opened. “Alright! Lunch is…” Patton blinked as he saw Logan outside of the box and the other borrower he had given to Roman just that morning. “What?” How had he gotten away from Roman?

Logan stumbled along, trying to force his head to remain clear as he kept up with Virgil’s hurried pace. Surely they could make it, just a little further…

 “H-Hey!” Patton put the plate down and gently scooped both creatures up into separate hands. He focused on Virgil. “How did you get here…?” Patton asked, eyebrows furrowed.

 Virgil struggled within the grip. “Let us go!”

“Indeed, release us!” Logan spat.

 Patton frowned sadly. “Now, now kiddos. No need for all this.” He set Logan back inside his box but kept a hold on the other one. He handed Logan the small piece of sandwich he made him. “There we go. You eat that while I take lunch and this little guy back up to Roman.” Patton prodded Virgil gently and went out of the room.

Logan picked up the small morsel, twirling it in his hands as he pondered this new development. Certainly it was unideal that their escape attempt had failed; but, if Virgil was to be believed, the human Roman had actually released him before. Logan took a cautious bite, daring to hope that Virgil would be set free again.

Virgil struggled. He couldn’t believe he had gotten caught again. He watched as Patton gathered up a dish full of food and exited his apartment. Going up to Roman’s floor. Great. Now he had to deal with Roman again.

 “Roman? I’m back!” Patton walked into the bedroom. “I have lunch and a certain someone who seemed to have gotten away from here.”

Roman let out a quiet snort, hiding his smile behind his hand when Patton once again entered carrying Virgil. Looks like the borrower’s plan had gone just about as well as he expected.

“Oh, Patton, thank goodness you found him!” Roman quickly disguised his reaction, putting on the theatrics. “I was worried sick.” Almost resembling a 2 year old, Roman made grabby hands towards Virgil.

 Virgil glared at Roman but Patton simply chuckled. “Alright, here you go Roman.” Patton handed Virgil over. “But be more careful with him. Who knows what could have happened.”

“Oh, don’t I know it.” Roman nodded empathetically, holding Virgil close to his chest like a teddy bear. “If only someone had specifically warned him of such a thing.” This last bit was said with a small smirk directed down at Virgil.

 Virgil continued to glare at the human, not liking how he was being held. But he wasn’t willing to say anything with Patton still in the room. 

 “Just watch him better okay? Now, here is your lunch!” Patton set the plate down on the nightstand for Roman. “Need anything else before I head out? I need to get back to Logan.”

“Oh! Actually, yes.” Roman blinked, remembering he was supposed to be helping with that. “I was wondering if actually, maybe I could help you with Logan?”

 Wait, what was Roman doing?

 Patton blinked. “Help? How?” He asked, tilting his head.

“Well, I know you still have to go to classes, but I’m bedridden.” Roman reminded him. “So maybe I could watch over him for you while you’re busy. After all, it sure would be a shame if he escaped because you weren’t there. Or! What if something serious happened and no one was around to help him? Can’t have these little guys choking to death.”

 Patton hummed in thought and for a moment, Virgil actually believed that Patton would agree. But then, “Sorry kiddo, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want this little guy getting sick too and you have to rest as well. You can’t be looking after a sick little creature while you’re in bed all day.”

 Virgil sighed. Of course.

“But I’m already resting; see? Resting!” Roman gestured to himself in bed. “I’m certainly capable of watching over another tiny resting person for a handful of hours. And you don’t have to worry about Virgil, he can just leave whenever Logan is around.”

 Patton shook his head. “I appreciate you wanting to help kiddo but it’s for the best if I just watch him. You just focus on, Virgil, was it? You just focus on Virgil and I’ll take care of Logan. Okay?” Patton smiled. “Speaking of, I should probably get back to him. Need anything else before I go?”

“But why do you get Logan?” Roman resorted to flat-out whining, getting desperate. “What if I don’t want Virgil? Can’t we... trade?”

 Patton looked at Roman for a moment, before shaking his head. “I’ll be back for dinner. See ya later Roman!” And with that, Patton left.

 “...I told you that wouldn’t work.” Virgil said, still glaring at Roman.

Roman frowned at the door, lost in his own thoughts. “I don’t know why he’s not listening...it’s so unlike him.”

 “Finding a borrower changes people.” Virgil sighed. “They could be the picture perfect human but the minute they get their hands on someone smaller than them, they change. Sometimes it’s disgust and they see us as a pest, other times they act as if they know better and treat us like...pets.” Virgil spat out the word in disgust.

“Ugh.” Roman pulled a face, bringing Virgil away from his chest so he could properly converse with the borrower. He certainly didn’t want to think of Patton as a bad human, but...well, he certainly wasn’t doing Roman any favors by keeping Logan to himself. “Alright, then I guess it’s time to move on to my next plans.”

 “I don’t think so. Just because this attempt didn’t work, doesn’t mean I’m not going to stop doing things my way.” Virgil shifted on the hand. “Now if you could, I’d love to be let go so I can try again.”

“Ah yes, and I certainly can’t wait to see you again at dinnertime.” Roman rolled his eyes. Though he said it sarcastically, the statement was actually true: Roman loved seeing Virgil despite the borrower’s protests.

 Virgil frowned but...Roman did have a point. Patton was going to be home all day now, other than for dinner. But even then, he would be gone long. No, his best bet was to wait for nightfall. When the human would be asleep. “I’ll just wait until he’s asleep.” Virgil said out loud to Roman.

Roman brightened at this. “So...does that mean you have some time to kill?” He asked hopefully.

 “...I should really be going.” Virgil said. Really, he did have some time to kill but he didn’t want to spend it here.

“Come on, please?” Roman put on his best puppy dog eyes. “I know you don’t have anything better to do. Indulge me, won’t you?”

 Virgil stared at Roman for a bit. “...Ugh.” He couldn’t believe he wasn’t getting out of there but...he had to admit Roman wasn’t...terrible. At least he let him go the first time. “Fine. But you better let me leave before it gets too dark.”

“I thought you wanted it to get dark?” Roman reminded him, but his smile seemed to grow regardless.

 “I do but I also need time to get there.” He glared at the widened grin on Roman’s face. 

“Alright, alright.” Roman eased off, noticing Virgil was actually concerned about this. “I promise you can go try and rescue Logan tonight. I’m not going to stop you.”

 “Good.” He better not. Virgil shifted again, realizing Roman was still holding him. “Can you put me down though?”

“Sure thing!” Roman agreed, setting the borrower down once again on the nightstand.

 Virgil dusted himself off. “...Thanks.” He took a seat at the edge looking at Roman with a raised eyebrow. “So, you’ve got me for the next couple of hours. Now what?”

“...well, to be honest, I didn't think I’d get this far.” Roman rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I assume you still don’t want to talk about yourself?”

 “You’re learning. I’m actually impressed.” Virgil said with a slight smirk.

“Well you’re not exactly subtle about that, it wasn’t hard to catch on.” Roman rolled his eyes. “And I doubt you’d be interested in learning more about me?”

 “Not usually no but…” well, when else would he get this chance to learn more about what humans did? “I can’t say that I’m not a little curious about human life.”

“Oh really?” Roman leaned towards him, a sly smirk present on his lips. “I knew you couldn’t resist my charms.”

 Virgil leaned back. “Not you specifically.” Virgil explained. “Just human life in general. Call it a...morbid curiosity.” He shrugged.

“Alright, so what exactly is it about human life that a borr-aaah, bo-rilliant individual such as yourself would find so interesting?” Roman spoke quickly, covering up his slip of the tongue.

 Virgil raised an eyebrow at Roman’s slip but found himself appreciating the fact he caught himself. “Well...I guess it’s the same reason why you’re interested in my life.” Virgil said. “It’s not mine and I’ve only ever been able to see snippets of it.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” Roman nodded. “So, in that case... maybe we can both share a little bit about our worlds? A sort of exchange, if you will.”

 “An...exchange.” Virgil bit his lip. “I don’t know…” The borrower rules were still pretty clear, after all.

“You don’t have to share anything you’re uncomfortable with, of course.” Roman assured him. “But I’m sure a few details about your secret mouse farm wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?” This last bit was accompanied by a teasing grin.

 “Mouse farm?” Virgil said incredulously but he had a small smile on his face. “Alright, fine. Let’s do that then but I get the first question.” Virgil thought for a moment.

 “You said you broke your leg in theatre, right? Well...what’s theatre?”

“Oh, theatre is wonderful.” Roman let out a blissful sigh. “It is the art of storytelling through movement. We get up on a stage and recite works through speaking, dancing, and other movement or methods. It’s quite fun and by far the most effective way to tell a tale.”

 “...Is that why I sometimes hear you singing so late at night? And talking to yourself?” Virgil asked. He had always wondered about that.

“Yes and yes.” Roman confirmed. “That would be me practicing for theatre. I have to recite aloud so that I have it down pat when I actually get on stage.”

 “And you’re just...on a big stage. In front of hundred of humans. All watching you?” Virgil shivered at the thought. No, just...no.

“It’s not for everyone, admittedly.” Roman said, noticing his reaction. “But personally I revel in the attention.” Roman gave a pleased hum, reminiscing for a moment before clapping his hands together. “So! I do believe it’s my turn then.”

 Virgil blinked. Oh, right. “Ugh, fine, go ahead.” He crossed his arms, waiting for the question he would more than likely not be able to answer.

[lovelylogans]

cocoa

part of the wyliwf verse.

the sideshire files | read my other fics | coffee?

warnings: mention of puppy mills, dogs, secret-keeping, food mentions, recreational drinking (not to drunkenness) kissing, that’s about it. this one’s mostly fluff, folks.

pairings: moxiety, logince

words: 7,766

notes: bold of you to assume i wouldn’t take the canon dog in gilmore girls WHO WAS ORIGINALLY NAMED COCOA and directly transport it into this verse. picture of the inspiration behind wyliwf!cocoa here as a puppy and here as an adult, btw. she’s a mixed breed, definitely has some chow chow (hence the Fluffy, if u are acquainted w/ mash potato, he is a chow chow) and german shepherd (hence the coloring) along with some other Mystery Breeds in there, so!

thirty-five isn’t exactly a special birthday.

thirty-three, sure, maybe, repeated numbers. thirty? yeah, new decade! but thirty-five—well, it’s just a halfway point, isn’t it? patton doesn’t think there should be much going on in preparation for that. a dinner, a little party/get-together, and patton’d be happy, which he’s told both virgil and logan (and roman, when he wanted an excuse to throw a party.)

so virgil and logan being so evasive over the past couple weeks or so means that patton’s been getting as investigative as logan about what could be going on with the pair of them.

logan, at least, has an excuse—apparently, there was some random, weird deadline for the franklin that logan had run into and had to guide the rest of the staff through—but virgil has just been a little... well, a little strange.

he’s been intent on suddenly patching up the back fence, which he’d been on about when there were rumors of foxes and raccoons getting into trash, but that had been months ago. it seemed like a weird time for this desire to resurface, considering it’s january. there wasn’t really much of a chance of all that when the ground was basically frozen over—patton doesn’t know much about winter habits of foxes and raccoons, but he’s pretty sure they’ve gone for warmer climates, or at least might be sleeping it out.

he’s been reading some kind of articles that he keeps humming at thoughtfully and bookmarking on his phone, patton thinks, except virgil hastily turns off the phone’s screen and turns to smile at patton whenever he tries to peek.

he’s also been furtively ordering things—patton would think it’s birthday presents, except he caught a glance of one of the labels of the boxes and it’s from tiny company that, patton has searched, makes some specialty peanut butter cookies and the like. food is virgil’s thing, he wouldn’t just order it, so maybe patton got the company wrong?

and now...

patton knocks gently on the top of the coffee table, so he doesn’t startle virgil into hitting his head.

“um,” he says. “hey there, honey.”

“hey,” virgil says, forcefully casual.

“can i ask what you’re doing under the coffee table and half under the couch?”

“i, uh,” virgil says, and coughs. “thought i saw something under the couch. cleaning, you know.”

“yeah,” patton says, and settles on the ground. “except you’ve kind of been deep-cleaning the house for the past week.”

“um... yep.”

“i don’t think you could’ve missed something if you’d been trying,” patton says, amused, and reaches out to scratch a little at virgil’s back. the part he can reach, anyway. 

“i’m really deep-cleaning,” virgil says. 

“i kinda figured.”

“really,” virgil says, “really deep-cleaning.”

patton grins, scratches at virgil’s back again. “did you get whatever was under the couch, then?”

virgil withdraws from the couch, an old piece of paper crumpled up in his hands.

“we should really vacuum under the couches more,” virgil says, and patton leans over to kiss his cheek.

“whatever you say, darling.”

(“how do you feel about dogs?”

virgil glances up from where he’s wiping down the counter—logan, in his chilton blue-and-navy, is sitting at his counter.

“uh, i have generally positive feelings toward dogs?” virgil says. “they’re cute. i’ve never had one. wait, aren’t you supposed to be working at the franklin right now, that random deadline, right?”

ever since logan was told he’d be editor-in-chief of the franklin at the end of his junior year, and now that he’s started his senior year and has been at the helm for over five months, he’s been spending lots long afternoons at the school, deep in the journalism lab, fussing over copy and photos and ap style and page design. virgil’d be worried about him overworking himself, but he knows that mel can, has, and will kick him out if he sticks around for too long, plus dee is there to antagonize him into getting distracted, along with some other chilton friends swinging in and out.

“i made it up,” logan says. “it’s going to be a cover story.”

“a cover story,” virgil repeats slowly. “right. okay. for what?”

logan hesitates, glances around, and says, in a lowered voice to avoid eavesdroppers, “dad’s birthday is in two weeks.”

“right,” virgil says slowly. 

“i think we should get him a dog.”

virgil pauses, before he sets aside the rag. “a dog,” he repeats.

“yes,” logan says. “a dog. a canine. canis lupus familiaris.”

“why a dog?” virgil says. “i mean, i know patton wanted one when he was a kid, but, well. your grandparents.”

logan hesitates, just for a moment, before he says, “i’m graduating in may.”

virgil knows this. virgil has had several crises about it. virgil has sat with patton through his various crises about it. virgil could not possibly be more aware that logan is, in fact, about to leave the nest.

“yeah,” he says.

“well,” logan says. “i’d have suggested a cat if he wasn’t allergic, but. he’s been used to taking care of someone or something for all this time. once i’m gone... it just. it might be a good way to cope, that’s all.”

“like the exact reversal of getting a dog to prepare for having kids,” virgil says, starting to get it. “getting a dog to deal with not having a kid around as much anymore.”

“yes. precisely.”

virgil considers this—he considers him and patton in the house, alone. and then he pictures a dog, big, small, medium, resting its head in patton’s lap, patton petting the dog, hugging it. taking the dog for walks and training it—well. it would be hard work. it would be a lot of energy. it’d be a commitment for however long the dog would be alive.

but it would be a comfort, too.

“all right, then. it’s time for me to start researching dogs, i guess.”

“oh, i’ve been researching breeds and training methods and house preparation and shelters in our area for a month now,” logan says briskly, and reaches into his backpack to take out a binder, and virgil really doesn’t know what he’d expected.)

...

(“hey,” virgil says, as logan slides into the passenger’s seat of his car. “how was school?”

“good,” logan says. “i had a pop quiz in latin, i think i did relatively well on it.”

“nice,” virgil says, and pulls out of the parking spot.

this is their second time visiting an animal shelter—they’d dropped by the sideshire one, but realized that they wouldn’t really be able to keep an adoption of an animal secret at home, especially considering that patton sometimes volunteered to walk the dogs there. this time, they were going to a place closer to the city that logan’s research assured them was humane, a nonprofit society, and took part in raids against illegal puppy mills and dog fighting rings—all in all, virgil thought it seemed like a pretty standup shelter.

“okay,” virgil says, as they’re pulling into a parking spot at the shelter. “and we do have a plan for if we find The Dog today, right?”

“they’ll hold a pet for you up to a certain point,” logan says. “i’ve asked mrs. prince and roman, and they said that if we had to bring the dog home earlier than anticipated, they’d be willing to house it.”

virgil nods, absorbing this, and gets out of the car.

“right, then,” virgil says. “let’s go see some dogs.”

they see some dogs. they see a lot of dogs.

they, eventually, see the dog. she’s tiny, and absurdly fluffy, and she eagerly attempts to institute herself in their laps the moment they sit down, demanding pets and treats and love, and she’s too cute for words. she snuffles at them eagerly and wags her tail so hard virgil kind of fears that she’ll fall over to the side, but she’s so energetic she’d probably bound up again immediately, wagging her tail even faster. she’s got big, clumsy paws, and big ears, and a too-long tail, and big, chocolate brown eyes that she’ll probably grow into. when she licks at his chin, he's basically sold immediately.

“virgil,” logan says, in the midst of petting the puppy, examining her temporary plastic collar. “look at her name.”

virgil leans enough to check the little paper sheet full of the information on the outside of the weird room-crate things this shelter’s got going on, and lets out a low whistle. 

“right, then,” virgil says. “that’s that.”

“we have a dog,” logan says, with a smile that he hasn’t quite tamped down—virgil realizes, belatedly, this is logan’s first pet outside of the occasional goldfish and smuggled-in-from-the-outdoors frog or turtle, and maybe all the face-licking and snuffling and puppy eyes had sold logan, too.

“we have a dog,” virgil agrees.)

“oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!!!!” patton hears roman squealing from where he’s in the kitchen, and patton leans his head out in time to see roman holding logan’s phone and cooing.

“what’s up?” patton says, toting the two bowls of popcorn he’d been in charge of preparing and settling back down on the couch next to virgil, and roman and logan both look up from the phone, roman grinning.

“oh—nothing,” roman says, and passes logan’s phone back to him. “just a cute, um, dance picture thing, s’all.”

“can i see?” patton asks.

“it was a snapchat,” roman says. “faded away after ten seconds.”

“oh, darn,” patton says. “what movie were we going to watch, again?”

“maybe we should watch lassie,” roman says, voice in that faux-innocent tone he’s been using when he’s up to mischief for years, and logan elbows him hard in the side. patton looks to virgil, confused.

“did i miss something?”

“maybe best if you don’t ask,” virgil advises him, and patton nods, taking a handful of popcorn.

...

patton’s decided to take a page from his son’s book and keep notes about things he’s noticed that are Weird, partially because he’s bored and partially because he’s now very interested in whatever’s going on here.

there’s the whole fence thing, as virgil had spent a good chunk of his saturday hauling out his and patton’s shared toolbox and grumbling irritably at the fence as he patches up holes and makes sure nothing can get into the backyard, sometimes retreating back into the house to stick his hands somewhere on patton’s person in order to warm up and drinking tea before he went back out there.

(“does this seem secure enough to hold a puppy?” virgil asks logan, when he comes out to the yard. “i mean, she’s really small, but she probably couldn’t fit through any of these holes, right? plus she’s growing.”

“she’ll be on a leash most of the time, anyway,” logan points out.

“i know, but—”

“virgil. the fence is fine.”)

he’s also hidden a variety of boxes away somewhere, labels that he’ll cover with his hands and say “don’t look don’t look birthday surprise!” which only makes patton want to look even more, and really, patton doesn’t think he’s a person that virgil needs to get several boxes of gifts for, so he’s dying to figure that one out when the time comes.

(“how does a dog require so much stuff?” logan says disbelievingly, sorting through the latest incoming purchase. “is this order just entirely collars?”

“harnesses, too, but she’ll grow out of them!” virgil says. “so we’ll have ones for when she does, i’m planning.”

“you’re going to spoil this dog,” logan says. “you’ve bought her bandanas.”

“look me in the eyes and tell me that patton wouldn’t love to accessorize his dog with bandanas,” virgil says, pointedly ignoring the suspiciously familiar black bandana with purple plaid stitched on with thick white thread that logan shakes at him accusingly.)

the whole deep-cleaning-the-house thing hasn’t stopped, and sure, it’s nice and tidy, but really, there’s only so much deep cleaning you can do before you can pronounce a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath house with one bedroom he wouldn’t go into, considering it’s logan’s room, fully clean, right?

(“i know puppies chew on things, but virgil, this is getting ridiculous,” logan says. “you’ve puppy-proofed the entire house at least five times. if she chews on something at this point, she’s to be commended for her creativity.”

“i just want to be sure she doesn’t choke on anything,” virgil says.

“i am positive the puppy won’t chew on old paper,” logan says pointedly. “and even if she does, if it isn’t a huge thing of paper, she’ll be fine.”

“don’t come crying to me when she throws up in your room, then.”)

he keeps going to the town library? sure, virgil’s a reader—not as much as logan, but maybe no one could ever be as much of a reader as logan is—but usually he brings books home and sets them on the bedside table and reads them gradually, over the course of a few days, but a few people have mentioned to him that they’ve seen virgil in the library, he’s reading books there and not at home, though no one’s really seen exactly what he’s reading.

(“what... is that?”

“um. it—apparently, it’s—i read that if we give her a hot water bottle and a ticking clock near her sleeping area, it imitates the heat and heartbeat of her littermates and helps her get acclimated to her environment better, so—so it’s a clock. for her.”

“virgil. you went out and bought a clock. for the dog.”

“okay, look, whose idea was it to get a dog in the first place?!”

“i haven’t bought a clock for the dog!”)

and now—

“babe,” patton says, dragging his fist across his still-sleepy-bleary eyes and settling his glasses on his nose, and virgil jumps before he pivots.

“hey!” virgil says. “i—sorry, did i wake you up?”

“no, just woke up and saw the time and wondered where you were,” patton says. he’d like to be coordinated about his affection, but he is very sleepy, so he just plods over to virgil and, essentially, walks straight into him until virgil wraps his arms around him with a soft laugh.

“sorry,” virgil murmurs, and kisses his temple. “i’ll be right up, i promise.”

patton peeks around his shoulder, and says, “was filling up some kind of new cookie jar really a huge priority, this time of night?”

“i—no,” virgil admits. “i just kind of got into the swing of doing dishes and wiping down the table and i ended up—well. filling up a new cookie jar.”

“i didn’t even know we got a new cookie jar,” patton says.

“surprise,” virgil says. patton reaches forward, intending to steal one of these apparently-good-enough-to-stay-up-past-midnight-for cookies, and virgil quickly closes a hand over patton’s wrist.

“um, probably not a best idea at this time of night,” virgil says. “sugar’ll keep you up.”

“that is a blatant lie,” patton says, and virgil leans down to kiss him again—quick, almost chaste.

“then it’ll be too much of a fuss to brush your teeth again,” virgil says, and sets the lid on the top of the jar before physically turning patton around. “let’s get to bed, yeah?”

“you’re being weird,” patton says, then decides, “i’ll deal with it in the morning.”

except in the morning, like it’s some kind of strange fever dream, the new cookie jar’s gone.

(”why did you decide to fill up the jar with dog treats in the middle of the night,” logan hisses at virgil as virgil’s making breakfast, logan looking for somewhere to hide the jar before patton comes downstairs, and ends up cramming it in the cupboard under the sink.

“it just happened!” virgil says defensively.)

...

the thing about instituting house rules for birthdays is that they tend to get thrown back at you.

“but i can—“

“no,” virgil says, from where he’s double-checking that the streamers will stay up if someone leans against the wall. “house rules. it’s your house, you know them.”

“virgil,” patton grumbles. “you wouldn’t be ruining my birthday if i helped with my decorations—”

“nope,” virgil says. “if i wasn’t allowed to cook on my birthday, you’re not allowed to decorate.”

patton sinks back against the couch with a huff, crossing his arms.

it’s been a very nice birthday, generally speaking. virgil made a massive breakfast, eggs and hashbrowns and bacon and biscuits and chocolate croissants and donuts, and didn’t monitor his hot cocoa/coffee consumption, for once, and logan and roman had swung by for breakfast before swinging out again (“i’m under oath,” roman had said solemnly, when patton asked them what they were up to) and they still haven’t come back, even though the party’s due to start in ten minutes.

once virgil has triple-checked everything, and fetched patton a glass of wine, he tugs patton to his feet and wraps his arms around him, smiling down at him.

“hi,” patton says, not quite able to keep the grudging tone he’d been trying to go for.

“hey,” virgil says. “happy birthday.”

a smile breaks out on patton’s face, even when he’s very sure he’d tried not to let that happen. “you’ve told me that already.”

“and i’ll probably say it again,” virgil says, and he leans down to kiss patton, and kiss him, warm and soft and the best kind of overwhelming, and patton really regrets having to break the kiss in order to breathe, but he very much likes the small, needy, breathless sound that virgil makes when he does.

the doorbell rings, and patton groans, leaning his head against virgil’s chest.

“the timing of whoever’s at the door,” he informs virgil’s sternum, “is terrible.”

virgil snorts and drops a kiss to the top of patton’s head, and patton reluctantly disentangles himself from virgil in order to answer it.

he really should have expected who it is.

“patton,” his father says. “happy birthday.”

“thanks, dad, mom,” patton says, and steps aside so that they can file into his house.

“hi richard, emily,” virgil says. “do you want something to drink?”

“stoli on the rocks with a twist, if you can manage it,” emily says.

“richard? oh, patton, here’s your wine,” virgil adds, pushing the glass into his hands again.

richard requests scotch.

“i can—”

“absolutely not,” virgil says, and presses a kiss to his cheek. “stay out here in case anyone comes to the door, yeah?”

patton sighs, and does.

the party fills up in waves—isadora and emily are engaging in some kind of silent stare-off in the corner as richard has, once again, escaped from a party with a magazine in hand—and soon enough, patton’s busy entertaining people and making the rounds. it fills up so slowly that patton almost doesn’t notice until he ducks back into the kitchen to check on virgil, how chaotic it is, how it’s just a bit too noisy—he thinks that most of the inn’s employees have shown up, as well as his friends and neighbors from throughout sideshire. 

and when he gets into the kitchen, the quiet nearly overwhelms him. patton has to lean against a counter and let out a slow breath when it hits him.

virgil glances up from where he’s been topping off some snack bowls, and sets them aside.

“hey there,” he says, and drops a kiss on top of patton’s head—patton’s cheeks flush, feeling warmer than he already is, and he beams up at him.

“hi,” patton says.

“having fun?”

"mhm,” patton says, and winds his arms around virgil. “missing my fella, though.”

virgil smiles down at him, soft, and brushes a curl off his forehead. 

“i have had,” patton informs him, “some wine.”

virgil’s grin grows a bit more wry. “that so?”

“i haven’t caught anyone at it, but someone keeps filling up my glass and i suspect remy,” patton says. 

“yeah, he would,” virgil grumbles.

“i’ll understand what’s going on between you two someday,” patton says—the slightly-joking-but-not-really rivalry between them has bemused patton for years now.

virgil snorts, once. patton’s about to poke fun at him a bit more, but there’s the chime of a text message, and virgil digs his phone out of his pocket.

“it’s logan,” he says. “i’m just gonna make sure that he’s got your surprise all set.”

“it has to be brought into the house?” patton says, and blinks up at him. “but what about all those boxes?”

“you’ll see,” virgil says, and twines his fingers with patton’s, tugging him out into the living room. patton gets parked soundly on the couch. 

“wait here.”

“for my surprise?”

“for your surprise,” virgil confirms, and patton squeezes virgil’s hand tight before he lets him go. 

“a surprise?” dot, his neighbor, asks.

“in five or so minutes,” patton says. “or, whenever virgil and logan come back, i guess.”

“oh, the surprise,” babette says, and winks at morey—neither of them holding cinnamon, which is strange, considering their cat comes with them everywhere. “morey, the surprise is coming.”

“you know what it is?”

“know what what is?” sookie asks, looking up from the tray of canapés she’s brought and is still experimenting with. 

patton’s distantly aware that other people are disrupting their own conversations in order to turn attention to his, but he can’t really care right now.

“my birthday surprise,” patton tells sookie. “virgil’s been acting weird for the past couple weeks, and apparently all the investigative skills in the family went to logan, because i’ve been trying to figure it out and i’ve got zilch.”

“well, it is a surprise,” sookie says reasonably. 

“babs?”

“sorry, sugar,” babette says, and patton sighs. just a little.

“well, i’ll find out soon, i guess,” patton says.

...

“hey,” virgil says.

“hello,” logan says, holding tight to the leash; the puppy is teething at the leash, too, still attempting to walk forward even though logan’s come to a stop. 

“hi,” roman adds, holding the box that virgil had gotten specifically for this. 

there’s a bit of weight on virgil’s shoe—the puppy’s come forward, set her little paws on his boots, and is sniffing eagerly at his jeans.

“hi,” virgil says (he does not coo) and leans down to pet her, scratching behind her ears, before he glances up to see roman grinning at him.

virgil coughs, and says, gruff, “here, give me the leash, i can get her ready for the surprise.”

logan hands over the leash, and roman sets down the box, before he digs out—

“seriously?”

“if you’re getting a dog as a birthday present, you have to put a bow around her neck, it’s practically the law,” roman says. virgil sighs and snatches it away.

“fine, fine,” he says. “go inside, text me when everything’s all set.”

roman takes logan’s hand, and logan pulls him toward the house; there’s a swell of music as the front door opens, then closes.

“okay,” virgil tells the dog. “um. so, you’re about to meet patton.”

the puppy continues to chew at her leash, still looking at him with her chocolate brown eyes.

“patton’s the best,” he tells her. “and he’s gonna love you, and we’re—you know. we’re gonna take care of you, and—and we’ve never taken care of a dog before, but we managed to raise a kid okay, and you’ve never lived with humans before, so we’re both new at this. we’ll do the best we can. okay?”

the dog tilts her head.

“i’m talking to a puppy,” virgil mutters, and shakes his head. “right, then. let’s get you all set.”

he puts the puppy into the box—it’s got a lid and a box, both separately wrapped, it has a blanket in the bottom, and cut-out handles so that virgil can carry her, and so that she gets air—and carefully removes her leash.

“comfy?” he asks.

she sits.

“good girl,” he murmurs, because reinforcing praise is important, and pets her for a bit. he looks at the bow roman had given him—big and red, of course—before he carefully ties it to her collar. she attempts to nip at it, before virgil wiggles his fingers in front of her face, distracting her.

“okay,” virgil says. “we can just sit here and wait until logan or roman texts us, yeah? and i can just keep petting you.”

so he does—at once point, virgil’s practically in the box with her because it turns out the puppy very much likes belly rubs, but it also turns out that fingers are, potentially, the best teething tool of all time (virgil is familiar with this, but it’s been about sixteen or so years since logan’s needed to chew at his fingers) so she is very conflicted between letting virgil scratch her belly and chewing at virgil’s fingers. 

virgil’s phone buzzes, and virgil removes a hand in order to check—logan’s said He’s ready—and leans in to peek at the puppy.

“okay,” he says. “i’m gonna put the lid on, and i’m gonna carry you around for a little, but you’ll be out of the box soon, okay? and you’ll meet patton, who i’m sure will spoil you rotten and pet you until you’re sick of it.”

she wags her tail.

“cool,” virgil says, and carefully sets the lid on the box, and even more carefully picks up the box, making sure that the box stays level.

before he has to consider how he’s going to hold this (frankly kind of absurdly too big) box and open the door, roman opens the door for him, grinning. also, he’s holding his phone horizontally, which means he’s definitely recording this.

patton’s smiling, but there’s a curious glint in his eyes as virgil shuffles slowly forward, very conscious of the tiny little puppy in the box that he doesn’t want to jostle.

the people at the party have also ringed around the room—babette and morey, who have remembered not to bring cinnamon, since he doesn’t know how the puppy will react to a cat, dot and larry, sookie and michel, and emily has somehow managed to pull richard away from his magazine, among everyone else—watching as virgil carefully sets the box at patton’s feet.

"logan just told me that the deadline was a cover story,” patton tells virgil. “you’re in trouble.”

virgil grins. “all of this was logan’s idea in the first place, actually. i thought it was a real deadline too until he brought me in on it.”

patton huffs, put-upon. “well,” he says airily, and elbows logan jokingly, “this better be a good surprise, then.”

“open it and see,” virgil says.

patton leans forward, and begins to pry off the lid. virgil waits with bated breath. 

as soon as he gets the lid off and seems to catch a glimpse of what’s inside, patton squeals in shock, jerking away from the box, and for a second virgil thinks they’ve horribly miscalculated and patton’s actually afraid of dogs, but that’s before he leans right back forward again and reaches down to pet the puppy.

“hi,” patton croons, and then he starts to giggle—before he puts his hands over his face, before he peeks out again, like he was checking to be sure that the puppy wasn’t a hallucination and that she wouldn’t disappear as soon as he took his eyes off her. and then he looks at virgil, eyes bright and eager and excited, laughing the whole time.

“is this real?!” patton demands between giggles. 

“of course it’s real,” logan says, and patton puts his hands over his face for a second, before leaning back forward and reaching down to pet the dog.

“oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” patton repeats, and, with a jolt, virgil realizes that he’s crying, and patton meets eyes with him, beaming hugely, and virgil feels some kind of unnameable emotion swell up in his chest—the closest he can get to identifying it is joy.

“hello,” patton repeats to the puppy, then, to virgil, “can i hold it?”

“do whatever you want, she’s your dog,” virgil points out, unable to stop his own smile.

“she’s a girl?”

“she’s a girl,” logan confirms, “ten weeks old,” and patton carefully reaches in, still giggling all the while, and carefully hoists the dog into his lap, therefore bringing the dog into the view of the rest of the room, which makes a variety of gasping, cooing noises that are really exactly what a surprise puppy deserves.

“oh my gosh,” patton repeats, and giggles even louder when the puppy sniffs at his face, and licks the tears off his cheeks. “oh, my gosh, hi there, sweetheart!”

the puppy squirms, and patton adjusts his grip, staring.

“she’s so fluffy,” he says in awe. “oh, my gosh, she’s like a teddy bear, look at how fluffy she is!”

the puppy is, indeed, very fluffy, and very stuffed-animal-esque in her adorable-ness, and patton sniffles, burying his face in her fur, just for a moment. the puppy wiggles a little, in order to keep licking and sniffing at patton, so patton resurfaces after a few seconds, crying harder than ever.

patton’s grinning, so virgil’s pretty sure he’s crying because he’s happy, but he wants to be sure, so—

“do you like her?” virgil asks hesitantly.

“i love her,” patton sobs, and virgil climbs onto the couch, so that he can wrap an arm around patton’s shoulders and kiss him on the cheek.

“i can’t believe you got me a puppy,” patton chokes out, and sniffles noisily, before pressing a kiss to the puppy’s forehead and settling her on his lap. 

“logan, technically, campaigned for you to get a puppy, i was just the one who was legally able to adopt her,” virgil says, and patton turns to logan, smiling.

“you should check her collar,” logan suggests, before patton can get any more emotional than he already is.

“her collar?” patton says.

“her name,” virgil elaborates. “which the shelter gave her and you can change it, if you want to, but—”

“you won’t want to,” logan says. 

patton adjusts the bow, and takes hold of the little temporary tag virgil’s gotten her, before they can register her with the vet near sideshire and make sure that they’ve got record of all her shots and the fact that she’s been spayed and microchip her so on, and takes a moment to read it. his jaw drops.

“no way,” he says.

“way,” virgil says. 

“her name is cocoa?” patton gasps. “that’s perfect!”

“told you,” logan murmurs.

“hi, cocoa!” patton croons to the puppy, holding her up in a way that’s vaguely reminiscent of lion king, except it’s at face-level and looking toward him. “hi there, my sweet girl! are you cocoa? i think you are!”

cocoa wriggles in protest, attempting to lean forward and lick patton’s face, and patton holds her tight in his arms, face just glowing, and yeah, wow, this was an amazing idea, go logan.

“so you’re definitely okay with the surprise pet,” virgil checks, and patton laughs, leaning forward to kiss him, the puppy attempting to free herself from between them, and it’s one of those amazing, perfect moments that virgil will keep with him forever, not to sound sappy or anything.

the party’s basically permanently derailed, after that.

people approach the puppy in groups, which means that virgil learns a bit more about cocoa: she likes fetch, but only for one or two throws before she gets distracted by something else. she really likes it when you scratch her neck, under her collar, because her back leg starts doing that thumping thing that dogs do when you’ve hit the sweet spot. she likes to play tug of war, which is normal, but she grabs onto pant legs with her teeth and clings even as she gets dragged around the room, so they’ll have to train her out of that. 

he also hasn’t really been able to seen her walk around a room, but since she’s got stubby little puppy legs and too-big paws that she needs to grow into, she practically waddles, which is both hilarious and adorable, and virgil witnesses her trip over her paws a couple times, which is cute, even if his heart stops and he half-lunges toward her in the time that it takes for her to re-establish her balance, tail wagging, and continue happily toddling along her intended path.

patton’s attention to most of the rest of the party is lost, too, since he keeps sitting on the floor and playing with the puppy, following her from group to group and randomly bursting into giggles at the sight of her doing something even slightly adorable, which, considering she is a very cute dog, is very often. he occasionally leans down to scoop her up into her arms and kiss her, which, well, virgil remembers him doing something similar with logan when logan was first able to walk reliably enough but still stumbling every few steps, so he probably shouldn’t be surprised.

patton is also half the reason the puppy is getting introduced to everyone. case in point:

“this is your grand-dog,” patton tells emily cheerfully, holding cocoa out in a way that emily would be able to take him. “you can hold her, she’s very light and very soft and very fluffy.”

emily looks like she’s about to decline the offer, like she doesn’t want cocoa to shed all over her fancy skirtsuit, before she sees virgil mouthing hold the goddamn dog behind patton’s head. she sighs, but she holds the dog, in a way that clearly denotes that she has never held a dog before—hands under cocoa’s armpits, letting her legs dangle in the air.

she stares at cocoa. cocoa stares at her, legs paddling in the air.

“you can hold her like a baby,” patton says helpfully, “that’s okay too” and emily adjusts her grip accordingly. 

and then she just. holds the dog. she doesn’t pet cocoa or anything. she’s just holding cocoa like a baby.

“isn’t she cute?!” patton says happily.

“...certainly,” emily says stiffly.

“i love her,” patton says.

“hmph,” she says, “well,” and passes cocoa back to patton, before she swipes her hands across her jacket, attempting to discard the fur.

“i’m gonna introduce her to dad,” patton says happily, and goes off to find richard as emily continues to sweep her hands across her shirt.

virgil digs the lint roller out of his hoodie, and holds it out.

"ah,” she says.

she brushes it along, and, once she’s satisfied, she moves to hand it back, before she pauses.

“where did you get this dog?” she asks suspiciously, as if virgil has specifically gotten a flea-infested rabid dog for the sole purpose of getting her to hold it, so it can infect her.

“a shelter,” virgil says.

“which one?” she says. “is it reputable?”

“you were on their donor wall,” virgil says, non-chalant. “so i’d sure hope so.”

she pulls a face at him—well, the emily equivalent of pulling a face. so, virgil one, emily zip.

“what breed is she?”

“german shepherd, chow mix,” virgil says mildly. “there’s some other breeds in there too, we think, but—”

“you should have gone to a breeder.”

“she was a rescue from a puppy mill,” virgil says, even more mildly, “so—“

emily sighs, long and irritated, before she says doubtfully, “it was logan’s idea to get a dog.” 

“yep, it was,” virgil says.

“why would logan suggest a dog?” emily says, and virgil glances around—richard is holding the dog slightly better, and tilting his head at it with the same curiosity that he does at a headline about “the youths.” 

“he’s worried about patton empty-nesting in the fall,” virgil says. “he wanted to be sure that patton still had something to take care of, so. dog.”

“and that was logan’s idea,” she says. “not yours.”

“...yeah,” virgil says.

“you must have had some other idea for patton’s birthday,” she says, as if doubting that virgil has not masterminded the whole dog plot and cocoa will eventually be trained into a vicious attack dog that specifically goes for white people in the upper tax bracket, or something, as if she is not currently chasing a ball tossed by richard, and then she slides and wipes out in a hilarious fashion before scrambling back onto her paws, tail wagging, panting eagerly, looking like the clumsiest and least threatening dog that had ever lived.

and virgil thinks about the jewelry stores he’s got listed in his private notes, the inspiration rings he’s got saved in about seven randomly named, nested folders on his password-protected laptop that you can’t find without searching for it specifically, the budget that he’s already schemed out, the various ideas that he’ll probably ask logan to help fine-tune, and he shrugs.

“nothing that can’t wait.”

...

patton’s still kind of in shock, but, like, the best kind of shock.

because. he has a dog. he has a dog!!! the surprise is a puppy!

she’s adorable! patton loves her already! whenever he looks at her it feels like his heart is made of melty gooey marshmallows! 

“no cocoa baby don’t eat that,” patton says, gently removing a piece of wrapping paper from her mouth. she attempts to follow it, despite the fact that he puts it out of her reach, and he puts a dog toy (virgil has been pulling out absurd amounts of dog supplies from every hidden nook and cranny in the house since the party ended) in her line of sight instead, squeaking it. cocoa takes that instead, lying down with a little thump, gnawing it at it.

“so, the way i get you to follow your own house rules is to give you a puppy,” virgil says, amused, picking up the wrapping paper and putting it in the trash bag that he’s filling with trash from the party, “got it.”

patton grins up at him sheepishly. “i could help if you—”

“nope,” virgil says, “absolutely not,” and runs his fingers through patton’s hair, scratching gently at his scalp, before he goes to sweep the coffee table of discarded paper plates and napkins.

“god, she’s so cute,” roman gushes, from where he and logan are sitting across from patton, the three of them kind of boxing cocoa in, but she doesn’t seem to mind. “i love her floppy little ears, and her big ol’ eyes, and her fluffy perfect face—”

“she is an aesthetically pleasing dog,” logan agrees. 

she is. she’s varying shades of brown, fawn and chocolate and chestnut and coffee and taupe, with a splash of white on her chest. her ears are a gradient of the varying shades of brown, and her snout is the same dark color as the edges of her ears. her fluff levels are truly off the charts, and she has pink little beans for toes, and her eyes are so soulful that patton’s genuinely going to get beaten out in the “best-puppy-dog-eyes-in-the-house” competition, though he passively wonders if she still counts considering she is a puppy dog, but—

“jeez, logan, you don’t have to be so sentimental about it,” roman teases.

cocoa squeaks her toy in agreement. it’s shaped like a mallard, with a goofy, cartoonish grin on its bill. 

gradually, naturally, the conversation dies down, and they’re all left in a companionable silence, except for the occasional murmur of “you comfy?” between his son and his son’s boyfriend, and patton softly entreating cocoa with a variety of pet-centric nicknames that he can barely make sense of—sweet girl, fuzzyface, sugarbun, marshmallow, kissyface—and eventually, cocoa flops onto her side and snoozes with a variety of tiny puppy snoring noises, and patton’s heart’s so full it feels like it might burst.

and once the house is relatively clean (a bit impossible to be fully clean, with the clutter that’s so ingrained into the house it’s practically a piece of furniture, patton barely notices it anymore) virgil settles onto the ground with patton with a soft huff, and briefly leans his head against patton’s shoulder, before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“good birthday?”

“amazing birthday,” patton corrects. “fantastic birthday. really spectacular birthday.”

virgil smiles, just a little. “good.” a pause, and then, “late, though.”

patton stifles his smile—virgil fussing about food and caffeine intake and about his sleep schedule has really been happening for as long as they’ve known each other. “you’re right,” he agrees. “i—d’you think cocoa needs to go out?”

“probably,” virgil agrees. “i’ll go with you.”

patton nods, and reaches out to scoop cocoa into his arms—she stirs a little, before settling in his arms just like a slumbering baby, and okay, patton might cry a little, she’s so cute?!

“remember to sleep out in the living room,” patton reminds. “don’t stay up too late, kids.”

he gets “we won’ts” that he’s not sure how close they’ll stick to, and a “happy birthday” from roman and a hug from his son, as virgil trails him toward the backyard. patton descends the patio steps, before he carefully places cocoa, paw-first, onto the grass. she folds herself up and it seems like she’s content to continue sleeping in the grass.

“no,” patton scolds, in a half-laugh, putting her on her paws again. “c’mon, puppy, do your business, and then you can sleep for as long as you want.”

cocoa seems to sigh, before she toddles forward a few steps, nose firmly stuck to the grass to sniff and investigate, and arms come around patton’s waist. patton smiles, leaning back into the warmth of it—january birthdays meant sometimes white birthdays, which were cool, but the cold was just something else—tilting his chin a little, and virgil obligingly presses a kiss to his cheek.

“you’re seriously good with the surprise pet,” virgil checks, and patton huffs a laugh, leaning back against virgil’s chest and securing his grip on virgil’s wrists, to keep him there.

“i’m seriously good with the surprise pet,” patton promises, and he feels virgil’s warm breath of relief against his ear.

“okay, cool,” virgil says, and admits, “i figured you probably would be cool with a dog, generally, since you walk dogs at the shelter a lot, but—”

“i love her,” patton says, leaning a little to see virgil’s face. “thank you.”

virgil flushes, and patton doesn’t think it’s just because of the cold.

“it was logan’s idea,” he mumbles.

“i know,” patton says, and then, “did he tell you why?”

virgil hesitates, before he shrugs. “empty-nesting,” he says.

“ah,” patton says quietly.

the fact that his baby is going to college has been on his mind every single day, since logan first got back his test scores and started sketching out plans at the kitchen table. patton’s been with him to visit a few colleges, and he’s—well, kids grow up, right? that’s what they’re supposed to do.

it doesn’t mean that the idea doesn’t make patton sad and anxious and really eager for some way to slow down time, too.

patton shakes himself, and says, “his idea, huh?”

“yep.”

patton starts to smile again, and he says, “i bet it wasn’t his idea to get her specialty peanut-butter treats, though.”

“...no.”

“or a ton of bandanas for her to wear. including a custom one that looks like your hoodie.”

“...well—”

“or the tons of harnesses and collars, or the big bed that we aren’t fully sure she’ll grow into, or all the toys, or—”

“i get it, i get it,” virgil grumbles. patton leans up to peck a quick kiss to his lips, turning more fully in his arms and wrapping his arms around virgil’s neck.

“i love that about you,” he says.

“what?” virgil says. 

“you’re a carer,” patton says. “you’re all gruff and grumbly on the outside, but if you see someone who needs help or needs to be taken care of, you’re all like, oh yes, of course, here’s this friends and family discount, what do you mean it’s brand new, this has always been here, or inviting them to your family’s christmas, or helping take care of their son, or offering couches to crash on and shoulders to cry on.”

patton pauses, and allows, smiling, “or cleaning up the house to make sure that they won’t find anything they’ll accidentally choke on, or patching up the fence so she can’t get out and nothing can get in, or doing secret research at the town library.”

and virgil’s flush definitely isn’t from the cold. virgil swallows, and says, in a voice that’s just a little bit shy and quiet, “it’s your birthday.”

“i know,” patton says simply. “i’m allowed to be sappy on my birthday.”

“course you are,” virgil says, and patton leans up to kiss him, before he turns back to squint out at the lawn. or at least, he means to.

because virgil’s fingers around his wrist prevent him from doing that, and before patton can ask, virgil’s bending just a little to press their lips together, cupping his face between both of his hands, and patton feels his heart do that happy little flutter it always seems to do around virgil. patton sighs, and if his eyes weren’t closed—when had he done that?—he’d be sure that it’d be a puff of steam in the cold air. virgil takes advantage of it, pressing in, so overwhelming but so gentle and patton can only wrap his arms around virgil’s neck and hang on tight.

when they part, patton blinks up at him, dizzy and dazed in the best kind of way.

“what was that for?”

“i’m allowed to kiss you on your birthday,” virgil teases him, smirking just a bit, and patton grins right back, hoping it looks as full of promise as he wants it to be. he leans in to kiss him again, but he’s interrupted by the sound of soft snuffling at their feet, and they both glance down.

cocoa’s staring up at them with an expression she could have gotten straight from logan—like, really, dads?

“okay, okay,” patton allows with a slight laugh, bending to pick her up again. “good girl, we get it, we can go back inside.”

virgil does lean in and give him a kiss over cocoa’s head, though, and patton beams at him with his arms full of fluffy, ten-week-old dog.

they climb the stairs, and virgil moves to the closet, and patton collapses onto the bed, letting cocoa down. she paces a few circles, before she curls up into a cozy-looking ball.

virgil glances back, and says, “patton.”

“what?” patton says innocently, sitting on the bed beside cocoa.

“if we want her to sleep in her actual bed, we have to start training her early,” virgil says.

“she’ll be lonely,” patton points out.

“i specifically bought her a hot water bottle and a clock to make sure that wouldn’t happen,” virgil says.

“um—?”

“hot water bottle to simulate warmth and clock to simulate the heartbeat of her littermates, to help her adjust,” he explains, and yeah, wow, patton adores him.

“virgil, i hate to point out the obvious,” patton says, grinning, “but i happen to know two people who get pretty warm in their sleep and who both happen to have heartbeats.”

virgil hesitates.

“just for tonight?” patton says, pouting just a little. “for my birthday.”

virgil sighs. “i know what you’re doing,” he grumbles.

“you can think about it,” patton says, and gets up to tug lightly at virgil’s hand. “we can do some other stuff, first.”

virgil’s eyes start to get that dark, familiar gleam that makes a secret, almost illicit-feeling thrill shoot down patton’s spine.

but later, when they both slide under the covers that night, freshly showered and fully intent on going straight to sleep this time, virgil makes no noises of protest about the cuddly ball of fluff that’s nuzzled her way between their bellies, and even when her tiny paws dig into their stomachs in her sleep, and she wakes them up when she adjusts, and they both have to contort into awkward positions rather than wake the dog and move her, virgil doesn’t make a noise of protest.

she never really ends up trained to sleep in her own bed at night, either.

[inkribbon796]

Where the Crossroads Meet Ch 3

Summary: As the dust settles, heroes and villains meeting don’t necessarily go as planned. Some first meetings are peaceful, others catch the town on fire.

<= FIRST

<= PREVIOUS

Chapter 3: Reformation

Silver never much liked fighting magic, too many ways for stuff to go wrong. So fighting a magician with a penchant for starting fires wasn’t how he wanted today to go.

Wade was battling the fires, but magical fire tended to act like an oil spill, so Wade was trying to smother the fires rather than blast them out of existence.

“Can’t you do something?” Wade spat.

“Only if I can hit the bastard!” Mark shouted back angrily.

“I am no such thing, you blasted cur!” The mage spat, his red and white outfit with a sparkling red cloak billowed out behind him despite their being no wind. His red and white opera mask was covered in gold glitter that caught the sun. He had an immaculate sword in his hands. “En Garde!”

Silver sighed, bringing his fists up, “Yeah, buddy, why not?”

He smiled, “A worthy adversary! At last!”

“Do you have one volume for everything?” Silver quipped.

“He does,” another unfamiliar voice, the city seemed to be full of them.

“Back off, Lo, this fight is mine,” the regal mage said.

Wade was standing at Silver’s back. “Hey, pal, we don’t need to fight.”

“Correct,” the unfamiliar voice agreed. “None of us should be fighting at all, The Prince is merely desperate for a fight after our failure at the bank.”

“Hey,” “the Prince” complained. “No I’m not.”

“Your friend, Iblis, sent us,” Logic continued.

Silver chanced a look at the fully masked person with a visor in front of his eyes. He was in a mostly dark blue outfit.

“Princey, I insist you stop your games and help the Captain and I look for the Duke, I am certain he is one of the causes for destruction, you being one of the others,” he was looking around. “I am also about to ask a question that I want the correct answer to: who started these fires?”

“Uhhhhh,” Princey drew out, looking nervous even past his mask, pointing to Silver. “Him?”

“No I didn’t!” Silver shouted back.

“Obviously,” he said, you could practically hear the eye roll in his voice. “I fail to see how two people with super athletics, and hydrokinesis can start fires at will.”

“Well, that’s judgmental of you, and you’re better than that,” Princey told him.

“Just do us all a favor and put the fires out,” he dismissed curtly. “We’re about to have enough problems.”

“How so?” Silver asked, walking. As a man who looked like he’d stepped out of an old black-and-white vaudeville cartoon and another person in a light blue outfit and puppy dog mask were helping to carrying an unconscious hero in a mask.

“Because me and other of our soon-to-be compatriots have upset two very angry and unstable super powered humanoids, and one of them wants me dead,” he explained. “In other important information, you can call me Logic. The personification of ludicrous fairy tales over there is Prince Charming, and our companion over there is Captain Morality.”

“Which one’s which?” Wade asked, which Mark was secretly happy about because he’d been thinking the same thing but now he didn’t have to take the fall for asking it.

“Neither of these are your compatriots, are they?” Logic turned to J.J. He shook his head and Logic groaned. “Well, our chances of meeting a violent demise have raised.”

“Why?” Silver asked.

“Lo upset some demons,” Patton smiled.

“I hardly believe there is a supernatural element at play with any of this,” Logan proposed.

“That’s absolutely impossible,” Roman reminded, chuckling a bit.

“Have you met Anx?” Patton agreed.

“I don’t believe in ghosts or wacky stuff like that, and even I have to admit my city is controlled by a fucking demon,” Mark commented.

“We’ll table this for later,” Logic ordered.

Roman walking up to the unconscious man. “Is he safe to hold up?”

The mute hero nodded and Roman picked him up in his arms. “What happened?”

He made a couple signs and Logan sighed, “He says it was demon possession.

“Silver!” Wilford called out and Silver screamed.

“No!” Silver flew over and slammed into Wilford, knocking him into the nearest wall and just pinning him there. “I’ve had enough bullshit today, and I don’t want more!”

Wil had a huge smile on his face. “I’m so glad I found you, I can’t find Abe or the police and something happened to the city.”

“What did you do? You insane asshat!” Silver knew that whatever happened, Wil was somehow involved.

“I did nothing,” Wilford balked, sounding insulted. “It was that chatterbox that did it.”

“Quit deflecting, you maniac, what did you do?” Silver demanded. He could hear another conversation going on behind him.

“What the hell happened, Jay?” A voice behind him asked.

Silver felt someone tapping on his shoulder. The mono-colored hero looked back to see the mustached silent hero holding up a chalkboard.

“Leave Wil, Dark is coming and we need to be gone,” his whiteboard ordered.

“Oooh,” Wil said in relief to J.J, suddenly appearing out of Silver’s grip to stand next to the mute hero. “And what a dapper gent too.”

J.J just stared at him.

Wilford snapped his fingers in disappointment, “Ahh, shame, maybe some other time then.”

“Hold up a second,” Silver interrupted, “if Dark’s coming, I’m not going anywhere.”

A series of explosions rocked the city a couple blocks down and Silver turned to the source.

“Oooooh~” Wilford cheered, “that looks like a big enough problem. Darky can’t possible ignored that.”

“Can you slow yer roll there fer five seconds, pal,” Jackie told him. “We’ll find him, but there are people dying.”

Wil made a scoffing laugh, “Oh, that’s a good one, this hasn’t been going long enough for games like that.”

“This isn’t a game!” The Irish hero shouted.

“Welcome to Egoton,” Silver greeted dryly to Jackieboy Man. “He’s literally insane.”

The explosions were getting closer.

“It’s too late already,” Logan groaned as a shrill ringing began to flood the area as color began to drain from the area.

A violent tear in reality opened up, a portal as dark as a black hole ripped and Dark stepped out. He looked around and stopped when he saw Wilford.

“There you are!” Dark spat in rage. “What did you do?”

Wilford was too happy to be angry and ran over to hug Dark. “Darky, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“No! No!” Dark shouted, using his aura to push Wil back and pin him in place. “You are going back to the Manor and staying there until I fix this.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Wil pouted.

“Then why is my city stapled to three other ones?” Dark shouted, gesturing to the city around him with one hand.

“I don’t know, the box didn’t tell me,” Wil snapped back.

Dark held up his hands, his aura was still around Wil to keep him in place, “I’m not dealing with this right now, you are going home and that is the end of that.”

Another explosion rag out, closer than the last.

“See?” Wil defended. “I’m not the one blowing up the town.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Dark groaned.

“Give it up, Dark, you’re in on this,” Silver spat.

Dark’s aura snapped out and stabbed Silver, who was too close to get away in time. “I didn’t ask you. I am dealing with enough today and I don’t need your childish antics.”

Dark glared at J.J, “And you, we will be having words after I deal with you.”

J.J signed something that made Wil giggle a bit. Dark glared at him. The sentence had actually been, “Over your dead body”. But due to a lack of anyone translating, Dark assumed it was more vulgar than it actually was.

“So am I in trouble?” Wil asked

Dark glared at him, “What do you think?”

“No?” Wil smiled as he wasn’t about to be shaken like a ragdoll.

“Try again,” Dark warned, tapping his arm angrily.

“Alright, I understand you’re angry but I found you something that might make you feel better,” Wilford bargained. “If you’ll give me one moment, I can show you.”

“No, I’ve had enough of your games,” Dark spat.

Silver, who had been too busy fighting the two to really stop to think about the villains’ personal lives, realized, “Wait are you two dating?”

J.J and Logan just stared at Silver.

“Isn’t he one of your rogues?” Logan asked.

“Yeah really,” Roman laughed, “these two are obviously as gay as the month of June.”

“As much as I like me some men, I’m actually pan—”

Dark shot out some of his aura towards Roman, J.J frantically pulling out his watch but Jackie was already pulling him to safety.

“Will no one leave me alone for five seconds? If I wanted my personal affairs invaded, I would have continued to keep talking to that insufferable power switch.” Dark snarled.

“Well if I knew how to solve that, I would,” Wil said.

“Wil, you are lucky you can’t die, or I would have painted the wall with your entrails YEARS ago!” Dark roared.

“I was just answering your question,” Wil pouted.

Dark’s eye twitched, but before he could say something Anti appeared next to Dark.

“Hey ‘coon eyes,” Anti smiled, ignoring Dark stabbing him through the heart with his aura. The Entity promptly let go of Wil to glare at Anti. “Yeh find Electro Nerd yet?”

Dark just looked a mix of tired and furious.

Silver looked around to notice that Logic was gone, wherever he was, J.J shook his head at Silver, tapping his finger to his mouth. The black and white colored hero nodded, watching Dark whose aura was churning angrily.

Anti stopped when the glitch demon saw Wilford, looking between him and Dark. He slowly started smiling.

“What?” Dark growled at Anti.

The standoff was momentarily distracted when Marvin was forcing Remus into the ground next to Jackie with inhuman speed and force. Fortunately neither of them were exactly human anymore so they still had usable bones. Both of them were cursing at each other, their clothing singed and burned.

Then Remus noticed Wil, winking and saying, “Hey hot stuff, having fun?”

“Are you kidding me?” Dark muttered angrily.

“Well, I’m a bit busy at the moment but maybe some other time,” Wil smiled encouragingly.

Dark rolled his eyes, opening up a portal and pushing Wil through it, closing it up as quickly as he could, “Stay in there until I get back.”

“Yeh know, yer supposed ta take yer boyfriend outta the closet,” Anti commented with a huge smile.

“You can’t just hijoke me like that,” Remus shouted at him, a giant snake quickly snapping and forcefully dragged Remus towards him, Virgil hiding behind Janus, the Deceitful Side was controlling a massive two headed albino python.

“There you are,” Janus spat. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Oh, Dee, you’ve been missing all the fun,” Remus smiled as the Virgil was starting to tie Remus quickly to the back of the large serpent with yards and yards of spider silk to make sure he couldn’t run off and cause more trouble.

“Come on rat boy, stop squirming,” Virgil spat.

“Only if you make me,” the Duke raised his eyebrows suggestively.

“Ugh,” Virgil groaned and slapped a mass of spider silk over his mouth. “Shut up for five seconds, will you.”

Remus looked elated, mumbling something that Virgil couldn’t understand but still looked upset. Deceit quickly taking them away, throwing up barriers so that he could put as much distance between him and Marvin as possible.

Dark took the distraction as an opportunity to slip away, going back to his warehouses to check on them, Anti glaring after him before counting the amount of heroes and dissolving into green and black pixels.

Jackie had to calm Marvin down from chasing after the three Dark Sides with single-minded anger.

NEXT =>

[lizord-lord]

(I AM!!! NOT DEAD!!! I STILL!!! WRITE!! Or at least I like to think I do. I got stuck on multiple parts of this chapter, and just buckled down and finished it last night, and it ended up being the longest chapter yet, not to mention entirely fucking over my outline. Hopefully more updates will come sooner, but given..everything about me, don’t count on it. But I am SUPER excited to bring you this chapter, so enjoy!! And thank you to @ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2​ for beta reading/ feeding my tiny gremlin ego.)

Ships: Royality

Word count: 6,585

Summary: Patton’s always believed there’s more the the world than meets the eye. Or at least-meets others’ eyes..his own have always seen glimpses of shimmer in the bushes, colors in the breeze, movement in the shadows.It was only distant hope-until a day of exploration in the woods led him to become acquainted with a pair of Fae twins. They call themselves Truth and Lies… But does he really know which is which?

Warnings: brief body image issues, sympathetic deceit

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Will O’ The Wisp, Chapter Three

I say you intrigue me, bright as you are

Work was torture. Not because Patton disliked his job-far from it, he enjoyed watching people splash color onto cups and plates and little figurines.  And even working at the kiln wasn’t too bad-though hot, but it was summer in Florida, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. He was pretty used to the heat at this point. It being summer, of course, there were more customers, which meant more hectic days, but this specific establishment was run by a very nice lady named Via who believed in the workplace being a friendly environment for all involved. And her wife Esther always brought donuts on Wednesdays, so there was that too. Even if Patton had stopped partaking lately. So overall, it was a pretty nice job. 

No, Patton’s suffering was not at all employment-based, but rather, patience-based. How was he supposed to just stand around doing normal person work when he, Patton, just a few hours ago, had met faeries?? It was taking all of his self-control to not bounce on his toes and begin to gush on about that magnificent experience to every one of his coworkers and the customers to boot!

Luckily, he managed not to. Roman might share his joy when they both got home, but the general populous wouldn’t, and Patton knew that they wouldn’t, and furthermore he did not want all his work friends thinking he was crazy. Heck, half of them already thought he was for refusing Esther’s donuts! Okay, maybe that wasn’t quite the same thing. 

Nevertheless, by some very human miracle, he managed to make it through the day with only the occasional comment about how he had more energy than normal. Which was fine. He managed to be his usual outgoing self without too much suspicious activity up until clock-out, where he ditched his uniform as quickly as possible and hopped on his brand new baby pink bike with so much gusto that he very nearly fell flat on his face. In fact he likely would have, had Elliot not also decided to bike to work today. They caught him just in time, tugging him back to his feet by the shoulders. In an effort to play off his near-death (okay, maybe not quite that bad) Patton laughed, but he was sure that between his face and hair, he looked entirely the same color.

“Thanks,” he said, slightly breathless. Elliot rolled their eyes, but there was a fond smile on their face. “Yeah, no problem Patt. Pretty sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want you faceplanting into the pavement.” “Oh for sure- if you hadn’t been there I would have been Splatt-on!”

Patton beamed as Elliot sighed.

“Take it back, you can perish on the floor for all I care.” “Aw, C’mon, it’s not that-” “Nope.” They held up a hand, face deadpan. Patton only giggled. “I am not letting you get a combo in there. How’s the new place?” “Oh!” Puns forgotten (much to the very sun’s relief) Patton brightened, brushing a few stray curls out of his eyes.

“It’s lovely! Even moving in was a blast, it’s just so...homey, y’know? Like something out of a storybook. And the woods! There’s this forest out back you see, and it has the most beautiful little stream, and the trees are huge, and- oh gosh you won’t believe this-”

He caught himself just in time. No! Bad Patton! God, was his mouth really that big? He just couldn’t wait, he’d had this massive revelation bottled up inside all day, and he’d almost been that careless? “What?” “Oh-” thinking quickly, Patton swung his leg back up onto his bike and made a bit of show of being careful to buy himself another two seconds. “I found this strawberry patch! Yeah, maybe I’ll pick some and Ro and I can make strawberry shortcake this weekend!”

Phew. Elliot tilted their head, clearly interested, but didn’t add anything until Patton was done putting on his helmet. “Sounds like a fun time. I won’t keep you any longer- I’ve been late to too many shifts already, now you get back to your man!” They laughed good-naturedly and gave a small wave as they headed inside the shop, and Patton grinned back over his shoulder before taking off down the road.

                                                           *

“Oh there you are my sunlight, my world is golden and warm again!” Patton laughed at his boyfriend’s dramatic, but routine greeting. And on par with that routine, he shut the door, dropped his keys in the little dish that they had put on the windowsill nest to the door, and let Roman sweep him into his strong arms, giggling as they kissed with way more passion necessary for people who had only been apart for about eight hours. If there was any perk to not have or be visiting Virgil constantly, it was that he wasn’t there to loudly call them gross and chuck a pillow, stuffed animal, blanket, comic book, magazine, tissue box, or on one occasion of extreme sleep-deprivation, his cat SV- at their faces.

They separated eventually, both giggling, and Roman set Patton down with a slight “oof.”

“Roman you won’t believe what I saw in the woods today!! Faeries Roman, I met real faeries!!”

The words spilled out of Patton’s mouth before anything else-even a hello, nearly squealing the last words in his pure excitement. 

He felt Roman’s hands go still in his, a look of pure shock spreading over his boyfriend’s face. An expression that soon morphed from shock to disbelief, then hope, and then an excitement so strong that Patton was sure that, if they were cartoon characters, his eyes would have turned into stars. Patton laughed, and then Roman laughed, and they gripped each other’s hands tight- and before long they were dancing like children in a little ring, laughing and squealing, because faeries were real and they lived in their backyard!!!

“Tell me everything!!” Roman exclaimed breathlessly once they had finally run out of energy and stopped the gleeful dance, and Patton nodded wildly, grinning so hard it hurt his cheeks as he dragged Roman to the couch, bouncing on the white cushion in his poorly-contained joy.

“Okay so- after you left I hung around a bit, and then I got bored, so I headed out to the woods y’know? It wasn’t really as fun without you at first, so I ended up back by that tree we saw last time. Beautiful tree, I think it looked even prettier in the morning! Oh- but anyway I think I fell asleep for a bit- and then I was hearing these voices, so I stood up and turned around- and when I did- faeries!!”

“How many?” Roman asked eagerly, his eyes sparkling, “How big were they? Did they have wings? Were they butterfly wings or like- insect wings? Or petals? What were they like?” Patton shook his head quickly, but the smile never left his face. “No, no wings- they were actually your height I think, maybe taller? But they were beautiful Roman, the way they moved- they were like dancers, or acrobats..it was amazing. But they talked to me, and we introduced ourselves- I’ll tell Virgil not to worry, I didn’t give my full name- but they’re called Truth and Lies, and they’re brothers! Well, sorta..they’re cursed you see- well, I think- Truth can only tell the truth and Lies can only lie, so they talk a little weird, and sometimes it’s just wind? Anyway- they said I could see them again tomorrow!!”

And just like that, Roman deflated.

“...I have a shift tomorrow..” he moaned, sparkle fading from his eyes like a puppy who had just had its favorite treat thrown in the trash. “Oh. Well-” Patton quickly squeezed his hands, worry flashing over his face- oh dear, in his excitement he’d forgotten, “Don’t worry- if they’re okay with meeting up tomorrow I’m sure they’ll be okay with showing up on Friday, right?”

“..right.” 

“I’ll tell them you want to meet them okay? They’re really friendly, I’m sure they’ll be okay with it! Plus, who wouldn’t want to meet such a charming prince?” Smiling, Patton leaned in to nuzzle Roman’s nose, which caused his boyfriend to let out a high-pitched squeal. And then a bout of giggles, which Patton soon found himself mirroring as Roman’s hands cupped his round cheeks and he began to pepper kisses over every single freckle. And then finally, his mouth landed on Patton’s, and the kisses turned from feather-light and playful to slow and sweet. By the time they separated, the immediate concern had been forgotten, and somehow Patton had ended up on Roman’s lap. Neither of them minded this, however. 

In fact, for a few minutes they just sat there in the light of the sun streaming through the window, with Roman’s arms slung around Patton’s middle- until Roman’s stomach rumbled.

“So….Chinese tonight, Rosebud?” he suggested- then pouted when Patton frowned and firmly shook his head. It wasn’t dinnertime quite yet, but Patton was hungry too, and with their slightly uncoordinated work schedules, he and Roman often ended up eating early, so food was something to be thinking about. However, despite his enjoyment for Chinese takeout, a more disciplined part of Patton’s brain rejected the suggestion.

“No, we had pizza last night Ro- and I made waffles this morning! We should get something healthier, at least make something ourselves?”

“Oh, alright, fine,” Roman sighed, though he was milking the disappointment a bit. “How about...enchiladas?”

Patton smiled conspiratorially at that, then rose from the couch and turned, trading out the expression for his most over-the-top stern look, placing his hands on his hips to really sell the bit. “Are you going to going to spill the sauce all over the counter and then draw a dog with it instead of cleaning it up again, young man?” “Nooooo?” Roman laughed, putting on his best “innocent face”, which made him laugh, and then Patton laughed, and Roman jumped up from the couch and took Patton’s hand, tugging him towards the kitchen. “I promise, no enchilada sauce masterpieces on the counter!”

The enchiladas went without incident (well, except for Patton dropping a bowl on the floor, but nothing was spilled and nothing broke, so it was fine) and soon the couple was seated together at the table, happily eating. It was well into the evening now, and Roman had been recounting work stories. Mostly bitching about this one lady who had come in with her seven-year-old son (which was fine as long as he didn’t break anything) and upon Roman coming up to her to ask if she was finding everything she needed, glared at him, covered her son’s eyes, and backed out of the store as if he was some ghoul asking if he could eat her child’s heart rather than a store employee just doing his job. Patton was listening intently and offering his full support in the rant, and Roman had just started to list all the other times people had been horrified to see a man in makeup working at a beauty store- when the doorbell rang.

That was odd. They weren’t expecting anyone, Virgil wasn’t the type to show up out of the blue and for that matter- neither were most of their friends. It could be the mailman, but that was unlikely, so that really didn’t leave much. Then again, after this morning, the oddness of the doorbell ringing when no one was expected seemed like nothing. Nevertheless, Patton quickly pushed back his chair and stood, Roman following, and opened the door.

Before them stood a friendly-looking man in perhaps his late thirties or early forties, with pinkish-purple hair and a tan sweater. He looked a tad surprised that they’d answered the door, but waved, then held out a hand to shake.

“Heyo! So you’re our guests for the summer, hm? Nice to meet you, I’m Emile Picani.”

“Oh!” This must be one of their neighbors. Patton took his hand and shook it, then offered a large smile and stepped back slightly.

“Sorry, we weren’t really expecting any visitors- I’m Patton Sanders, and this-” “Roman Prince, delighted to make your acquaintance.”  Patton rolled his eyes playfully at the little bow his boyfriend offered their neighbor before taking his hand and shaking it firmly.

“My boyfriend,” Patton finished with a sigh, slightly relieved at the way Emile laughed at said boyfriend’s antics. “Why don’t you come in?”

“Oh no, I just wanted to say hello, I shouldn’t be intruding-” “Nonsense!” Roman proclaimed. “We were just finishing up dinner, and it’s always good to get to know your neighbors, right?” “Well..if you’re alright with it, I suppose.” 

He stepped inside and Roman closed the door behind him. Patton quickly excused himself to clean up their dinner dishes, and before long they were all seated in the little living room area, Roman and Patton together on the couch and Emile in a white wicker rocking chair.

“So where are you two coming from?” Emile asked.

“Oh, not far,” Roman replied. “I’ve been around, but my family moved to Portsmount city when I was sixteen, and dear Patton has lived there all his life.” “That’s right! I’d always really wanted to see some country, so we figured rather than renting a place together we could try somewhere a little more rural for the summer and..y’know, see how we liked it!” “Aww, how sweet,” chuckled Emile “Though I wouldn’t call our little spot of town country really.” “Well it’s pretty close to me!”

“Fair. Suppose I’m kind of the same myself in a way- I’ve lived here all my life. Makes the commute a bit of a pain, but the view is worth it.” “You have?” Roman asked, leaning forward a bit with interest. “Got any stories to tell?”

He was grinning slightly, and Emile laughed again, though it was a bit high-pitched.

“Oh, plenty, but if I recounted all of them we’d be here all night. Maybe I can humor you another time?” “Of course,” Patton replied. “Plus, most of them aren’t really the town’s, if that’s what you’re after. Dare I say it’s not really too eventful a place, but it’s pretty darn homey.”

“Seems that way..” Patton’s voice trailed off almost dreamily, but his eyes sparkled- not an eventful place? He’d never heard anything less true.

“So what do you two do?”

“Well I, am an actor!” Roman proclaimed, puffing out his chest slightly, “But in between shows I’m just a Sephora cast member for now.” “An actor? My my, that’s wonderful! Though I can’t say I’m surprised, you definitely have the attitude.” Roman beamed at the compliment, while Emile turned his sights on Patton. “And what about you?” “Oh, I work at Color Me Mine.” “Color Me Mine?” he tilted his head, confused, “Can’t say I’ve heard of that place.” Patton just waved a hand, unbothered. Most people didn’t know where he worked. “It’s a shop where people can come and paint their own ceramics- bowls, plates, figurines-that sort of thing.” “Creative types then?” “Mhm!” Emile pushed his glasses up his nose. “Well our little spot is going to be lucky to have you then! I’m a therapist myself. Shame I can’t have my office out here, I think a natural environment can really help clear the mind and make sessions easier. But it’s obviously too far.”

“You can say that again,” Roman snorted. “Our friend Virgil still lives in the city and most of his texts so far have been asking if we’re dead. I’m only half-certain that he’s joking…” “I’m sure we’ll get him out here for a visit sooner or later,” Patton assured.   

“Sounds like you’ve got a mom friend experiencing empty nest syndrome,” Emile joked, and they all laughed.

“Virge means well, he’s just a bit uh..” Patton rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well, Ro and I can be a bit crazy when left alone, he’s normally kinda a voice of reason for us.” “Ah, I see.”

“Speaking of friends,” Patton began, eager to keep the conversation flowing- he liked Emile, wanted to keep speaking with him. “Have you got any around here?” Emile let out a chuckle, shaking his head. “No, not around here. There aren’t really too many people here anyway- not on the edge of the country at least. Most of the people I know live up in Vaybury proper.” 

Vaybury was the actual town they were staying in- well, technically. Houses trickled off once you got out of the main area of town, and the house Roman and Patton were staying in was on Becker Street, pretty much the last real street before you hit real country, and there were only about six or seven houses on it. Some of them weren’t even occupied. So what Emile said made sense, though it disappointed Patton somewhat.

Their chatting continued for another ten minutes or so, pleasantries and enjoyable-if shallow, small talk, before Emile announced he was grateful for their hospitality and happy to make their acquaintance, but he should be getting back home. But of course, Patton being Patton and Emile seeming to have similar traits of good-natured talkativeness, they had ended up continuing the conversation with Emile leaning by the doorway. Roman had just finished up telling the story of all the hoops they’d had to jump through to even be able to see this place, and Patton picked up right when he finished with their first impressions.

“You can see why we picked this place,” Patton laughed, gesturing to the rosebud wallpaper. It was very 1950s, but when Roman saw it he had picked Patton up and teased him about how he was all over the house already- and Patton had giggled and blushed as pink as the little flowers themselves. But he didn’t reiterate that part to Emile, it seemed a bit too personal. “It’s just beautiful, and the view is gorgeous- I know it seems a bit silly but it was kind of the home I always pictured living in as a child..” he ducked his head slightly, brushing vermillion curls from his eyes, but their neighbor smiled along with him.

“You can see why I just had to insist,” Roman said with a large smile, wrapping his arms around Patton’s middle and making him squeak, “My dear sunlight was shining like his namesake when we finally got here- not to mention on our walk in the woods! Though I doubt I was much better,” he chuckled, “That forest is just magical, is it not? I swear I was certain we’d come across Rapunzel’s tower any minute!” But Emile frowned at that statement.

“You...went into the woods? For how long?” “Oh, only an hour or so,” Roman responded, waving a hand, “At least when I was there anyway-Patton was telling me all about his adventure this morning as soon as I got home!”

“You went alone into the forest?” 

Patton nodded- and for a moment he was afraid Emile would be angry- or that there was some terrible danger there that the fey hadn’t warned him of..but Emile only looked concerned. He sighed, pushing horn-rimmed glasses up his nose. “I...wouldn’t do that if I were you. The fringes are usually fine, but the deeper you go- well, there are wild boar in there. Not a good place for visitors, or locals for that matter.” He shook his head and placed one hand on the door frame, stepping out into the evening sun.

Roman and Patton shared a glance, and after a moment Patton stepped out of his boyfriend’s arms and offered the concerned man a small smile.

“We’ll keep that in mind- thank you. And it was great meeting you!” “You too,” Emile replied, giving them one last friendly nod, before he stepped down the path and Patton closed the door behind him.

They stood in those positions, staring at the door, until Roman voiced what was going through both of their heads. “...Do you think he knows?” “I...I don’t know.” Patton’s voice was quiet, his gaze cast to the floor. “He could.” “Perhaps you could ask them tomorrow?” “Oh- yeah, I can.” 

There was a moment of silence. “I’m sure it’s nothing though,” Patton assured. But only the air would relax at the words, because though both of them nodded, neither of them would really take the comment to heart.

                                                             *

It rained the next morning. Not a light drizzle either, but the heavy summer rain- Patton left the house swaddled in a bright blue raincoat, his hands shoved in his pockets. It felt better once he got into the woods, but the branches would often bow under the weight of the rainwater and dump hundreds of drops down onto is head. Despite his hood, by the time Patton reached the clearing the fey had appeared in, his red curls were plastered to his face and his glasses were completely fogged over.

He honestly wasn’t sure if Truth and Lies would appear today, with this weather...but he wasn’t going to assume anything. The massive oak that stood proud in the center of the clearing, to Patton’s relief, was tall, dense, and wide enough that it didn’t seem to be showering the ground with droplets, so Patton found a relatively dry root to perch on and pushed back his hood, shaking the water from his hair like a puppy.

He unzipped the raincoat too, just enough so that he could use the hem of his faded pink shirt to clean away the moisture from his glasses and slip them back on- and then jolted backwards in shock, smacking his head against the trunk of the oak and letting out a yelp of pain, for there were the two faeries, hanging from a branch by their knees and twisted together like a butterfly’s cocoon, both pairs of eyes staring straight at him.

“Oh, Patton!” 

With his eyes closed, he couldn’t be sure as to whose petal-soft fingertips lifted up his chin before sliding around to feel among his wet curls for any sort of bump on the back of his head, but judging by the silky tone, it was Lies. “We don’t offer any apologies for startling you so..that looked comfortable.” Definitely Lies. Patton opened his eyes, still seeing flecks of sparkle at the edge of his vision- ow, that was going to swell most likely- to see the green fey only inches from his face, with Truth just a little farther away, his hands placed on the root right next to Patton’s right thigh and leaning  over his shoulder. Instantly, Patton’s cheeks flushed, and he let out another squeak, this time one of embarrassment. 

“No! No it’s okay, just a little bump- clumsy me really, not your fault, it happens all the time!” “Are you certain?” Patton’s nodded vigorously, and to his relief the two moved back a bit, sitting down on a raised root opposite him. Not that he minded their presence, it just...it surprised him, and despite his friendly nature having such fantastical creatures only inches from his nose- it just- it was scary! Not because he was scared of them, of course, it just...it felt like they were looking right through him.

“Well...that’s good. We almost thought you wouldn’t come. What with the rain and all. I find most humans prefer not to go out in such weather.” “Oh- I wouldn’t miss it!” Patton quickly exclaimed, “I mean, sure the rain’s kind of a pain, but that’s why I have a coat!” “That’s good,” Truth smiled, “We’re glad you’re here.”

“Of course- what was I going to do, watch TV instead of meeting with faeries?” The notion was ridiculous- Patton laughed, and the two fey added their musical giggling to the mix of sound. Patton felt a spark of pride for getting them to laugh.

“True, true, but you must remember that of course not everyone is willing to accept our existence.”

“Right.” Patton..he felt bad for those people. Those who refused to accept there might be childlike wonders in the world..maybe he got called immature or gullible for his willingness to accept the fantastical- but that was fine. Their loss.

“So..Patton.” He was jolted out of his musings by Lies’s smooth voice, and looked up, to see the green fey tapping his glimmering cheek.

“What do you think of that tour?” “Tour? Oh-OH!” Patton flushed, embarrassed at his absentmindedness, “Of the woods?” “No.” “Um...well, I don’t really think I should. Don’t want to lose track of time, y’know?” They just blinked.

Patton shifted on the damp root, suddenly self conscious, and looking for a subject change- when he remembered the conversations of the previous evening.

“Nevermind- actually, I kind of wanted to ask you two something?” “Of course,” replied Truth, leaning forward a smidge as both tilted their heads. Patton brushed a hand through his wet curls, trying to push them back into something that made him look a little less like a drowned poodle.

“Well..Roman really wants to meet you, but he couldn’t actually come today- but he’s free on Friday...so if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I was kind of hoping maybe we could meet then too? So he could meet you?” The words came out in a bit of a rush, and when Patton looked up almost sheepishly, he was met with the sight of the two fey sharing another one of their odd looks. 

“That sounds terrible Patton..” Lies said with a smile, after a moment of that silent discussion, “Was that all?” “Ye- no! No, there was actually one other thing..” bringing up Emile felt..more invasive. But he’d promised Roman he’d ask..and he was horribly curious himself.

“Our..new neighbor came over last night. He’s really nice- but it kind of ended on a..not-so-good note. He warned us to stay out of the woods.” “Well of course, none of the humans who’ve settled here find themselves afraid of the forest,” Lies dismissed, waving a hand and leaning onto Truth’s shoulder. Judging by the blue fey’s expression (hard to read as it was) he didn’t seem to think this anything important either. “...Well yeah- but you know, we were just a little worried that he knew something- you don’t know an Emile, do you?” He felt a bit bad, possibly giving out part of someone else’s name..but it’s not like he could just describe him right? They had to have seen so many people.

“Emile?” Truth frowned, tapping his delicate fingers on Lies’s knee, “No, I don’t remember any human by that name in recent years..” “I definitely remember him.”

Patton felt his shoulders relax slightly- and a laugh escaped his throat. “Of course- I knew it was probably silly, but I just wanted to check.” “Of course, cautiousness pays off well.”

“You sound like Virgil,” Patton chuckled. Well, Virgil would have phrased it more like “People can call you paranoid, but they won’t be laughing when you’re stocked for the apocalypse and they aren't.”

He missed Virgil..

“Well then Virgil must be immensely intelligent,” Lies commented, holding out one hand in front of his face, observing his nails- and Patton almost frowned. Lies’s odd opposite-speak was a bit hard to adjust to, true, but Patton caught on quick- and he swore the fey had just called his friend stupid! “Hey, he’s n-” But Patton was cut off by the sound of Lies’s laughter as Truth, his face pinched with offense, pushed the green fey off of the root and onto the slightly muddy grass. Lies let out a shriek, his laughter turning to something of disgust as he leapt to his feet and quickly brushed the mud from leaflike skin. And Patton suddenly felt immensely silly for jumping to conclusions, as he realized that Lies was in fact, taunting his brother. But he also didn’t really blame himself- years of going to bat for his friend had conditioned him to be very protective. And that was a good thing!

He found himself muffling a giggle with one hand, then almost jumped as he suddenly felt a body press against his side. Quickly turning his head, he realized that Lies had slid onto the root next to him instead of his brother, and wrapped his arms around Patton’s left arm, tucking in close. It sent Patton’s cheeks absolutely ablaze, his laughter dying in his throat (along with any other sounds he might consider trying to make) but the fey didn’t even seem to notice, instead flashing a wide smirk at Truth.

“Well, if you’re going to be that way, maybe I’ll just make sure to share this one..” “As if you wouldn’t have been caught in your own web centuries ago without me,” Truth sniffed. “Well excuse me for refusing to have any fun at all..” Lies drawled, letting go of Patton’s arm only to drape himself over his lap, slinging one slender arm around Patton’s shoulders to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. Warm tingles spread down his spine, and Patton shivered. He almost felt like he couldn’t move, or speak. He didn’t want to disturb the delicate scene.

“Now who’s groping the poor thing?” “Hm? What do you mean?”

It was then Patton realized that the two were indeed aware that he was still there- and probably even his reactions to their actions..which made him hide his hands in his face in order to cover up a blush that probably made every freckle on his face stand out like seeds in a watermelon. “No-it’s um-” god he couldn’t even get a word out “fiNE it’s fine I don’t really mind.” Lies laughed- and leaned up to press a delicate kiss to Patton’s temple before sliding off his lap. Patton went absolutely rigid, and by the time his thoughts calmed down he realized the green fey had perched himself back on the branch over Truth’s head, dangling one arm and one leg over like it was a perfectly soft sofa and not a cylinder of wet, rough bark.

“Now now Patton, remember, obvious lies aren’t my job.”

He had the feeling he was supposed to laugh at that, but as he was currently engrossed in trying to function like an actual person who wasn’t a tomato in a raincoat and could speak words, it was a bit difficult.

“I apologize for him…” Truth sighed, brushing a droplet of water off of one of the cobalt spots on his cheek.

“No- no, it’s really fine I mean it,” Patton managed to get out, though he did end the sentence with a very awkward high-pitched giggle that he would rather have avoided. He kicked his legs a little in an effort to distract himself.

“Hm...you said your “boyfriend” couldn’t accompany you today- why is that?” “Oh, he has work. His shift is a lot earlier than mine,” Patton explained quickly, grateful for a subject change. He received no answer immediately, but did notice Truth tilt his head thoughtfully, and heard Lies let out a scoff from his place languishing on the branch. “Work. I didn’t think humans would have gotten over such a notion by now, of course I suppose it wasn’t vital a time ago..but now you seem to do it just for boredom!”

...Patton couldn’t honestly argue too much there. He might be an optimistic soul who, while having a very strict moral compass, didn’t like to dwell too much on the terrible things about the world he couldn’t do anything about as a single person, but you couldn’t live around Virgil without being fully educated as to the sins of capitalism and the emptiness of what most people were brainwashed to believe was “necessary” work in order to earn the basic right to live.

“Yeah..it’s a..thing.”

“What does he do anyway? You’ve all gotten past farming right?” Truth asked a bit boredly, tracing a pattern on the root with his finger. Patton pursed his lips, trying to figure out how to explain it all.

“Well...I mean no, a lot of people still farm since we need food, but thanks to technology most people have other jobs. Roman um...well he works at Sephora, which is a store that sells makeup, which is like- facepaint! Yeah, humans paint colors on their face to make themselves look different.” “Oh how despicable!” Lies exclaimed- a little to Patton’s surprise, considering the...well not disinterest, he wouldn’t call it that, but general..detachment, that the two fey had expressed so far. “What?” “Oh, it’s just so awful to hear you’re finally taking some enjoyment in your little lives,” Lies said with a smile- and Patton felt his own lips curl up too, the faerie almost seemed to glow when he grinned, despite the cloudy sky and tree shading the three of them. “Humans in the past were just so interesting, not scared of their own shadows and not a single hour of the day spent working!” ….Honestly, Patton could...see that. He wouldn’t want to live a few hundred years ago, even if it was some alternate universe where there wasn’t any of the admittedly awful social norms..he’d feel trapped. Trapped in one role, in one or two places, with little ability to know what else was out there or meet new and interesting people unless he dedicated decades to traveling. He wouldn’t quite call the humans of the past “scared of their own shadows” as opposed to “superstitious” but here he was talking to a pair of faeries so...that assumption could be wrong. In fact it probably was. Goodness, he was still having revelations!

“....tton?” “Huh?” Patton’s head snapped up in surprise- and immediately felt something soft against the back of his skull. He quickly realized it was Truth’s’ hand, and then came the embarrassing realization that he had almost bashed his head into the tree again. His cheeks flushed, also because he had just realized he had gotten lost in thought while being spoken to. “Oh-thanks..” “Of course, we wouldn’t want you to hurt your head again.” “Are you alright?” “Of course!” Patton scooted forward, a bit away from the tree that the back of his head seemed so very fond of at the moment. “Sorry, I just..got a little lost in thought there. Again. How very..root of me!” He giggled, tapping the twisting root he and Truth were sitting on, and felt a little bit of pride in his chest as he noticed Lies’s lips quirk up again. “I wouldn’t say that’s a clever bit of word play.” “You think so?” “Of course not.” “..Gee, thanks..” Patton dipped his head a little, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Normally people just laughed (or groaned, but oftentimes it was really the same thing with puns) not acknowledge the little joke. “You’re a real sap, aren’t you Lies?” And there were the reactions he was used to- a musical laugh from Lies, and an agonized groan from Truth. “Please don’t encourage him…” “Come now Truth, his jokes aren’t darling..when will you learn to humor people?” “When doing so doesn’t result in being subjected to terribly constructed wordplay,” Truth responded flatly. “Plus, flattery is your job.” “Oh yes, and that’s why you’re the favorite.” “Excuse me?” “Face it, no one knows I’m the better seedling.” “It is likely they only say that so you don’t throw a tantrum.” Lies gasped, a look of exaggerated hurt flashing over his pointed face as he drew his hands to his chest protectively- and in that moment, the two of them so much resembled Virgil and Roman- one responding to goads with dry wit, the other teasing but reacting with “horror” when the words were turned back on him, that Patton was unable to stop himself from bursting into laughter. “..Pardon?” “It’s- oh, it’s-” Patton let out another bout of laughter at seeing the expression crossing the face of the two faeries, and by the time he stopped, his face was still glowing with mirth.

“You just- you argue just like Virgil and Roman!” “...We do?” Truth’s voice was...actually surprised. And a little confused. It was the first time in the hours he’d spent with them that Patton was actually certain that he knew what was going on in the fey’s head. “Yes! They bicker just like brothers sometimes, it’s adorable!” He got no response. Truth and Lies simply glanced at each other, but Patton was too full of glee to feel embarrassed at the silence. “..Say, do you think we’ll ever meet this Virgil?” asked Truth, and Patton briskly answered. “I’d like you to- but it probably won’t happen. I mean, he lives in the city, and it’s about an hour away when there isn’t traffic..and Virge really doesn’t like driving in traffic. So if he does visit it won’t be often- and…” his smile dropped, “Well, no offense, but Virgil isn’t really..well, he probably wouldn’t feel too comfortable around you two.” “...I see.”

Lies’ response felt..wrong, to Patton. But thankfully, he was saved from delving further into that awkward topic by the sound of Night Owl. Not the actual bird of course, though it was dim out due to the rain it was still late morning, there wouldn’t be any owls about- but the sound of the alarm Patton had set to remind him when he had to start heading home to get to work on time.

“What was that?”

“Just my alarm,” Patton responded, pulling his phone out of his pocket and turning off the alarm, sliding off the root and onto the damp grass. He noticed the way Truth and Lies leaned towards him and the phone- no doubt curious, but as much as he’d like to explain, he really had to get going. Especially considering that he might get lost on the way back.

“...An alarm,” Truth repeated, and Patton nodded.

“Yeah, it’s a noise I set to play so I remember to do certain things- like, I need to go right now, for my job.”

“Oh, must you?” Asked Lies, with a tone of voice that could only be described as a whine as he slid from the branch and wrapped his arms around Patton’s waist- which made him squeak as his face was pressed into the faerie’s chest.

“Can’t you stay just a little longer?”

“....No, I’m sorry, I really have to go,” Patton insisted, very gently squirming out of the fey’s grip and ignoring his pout. “But I’ll see you on Friday, right?”

“Right,” Lies sighed, and Patton heard the soft sound of feet touching down onto grass, turning to see Truth had stood from the root, and was smiling gently.

“Right. And we are so looking forward to meeting your partner.”

He placed a kiss on Patton’s forehead- and though Patton did not squeak this time, he did blush and giggle. He turned, zipped up his raincoat and pulled his hood up over his damp hair, still smiling.

“Goodbye!”

“Goodbye,” the fey chorused, but when Patton turned back around to wave, they were gone.

Well, that seemed to be their way. So he waved anyway at the empty glade and turned around, marching off through the woods and savoring the smell of damp leaves and wood.

Tags: @patton-croc-agenda @why-things-go-boom @tawnyevergreen @jynxlovesluck @towersandmyrtles @notveryglittery @per-seph-o-nee @definitely-a-plant @starryfirefliesbloggo @karmels-stuff @impatentpending @the-parentheticals @chinesewaffles2 @whatwashernameagain @em-be-lievable @theincediblesulk @xx-fandom-potato-xx

(If you enjoyed, please reblog!)

[ashrain5]

Prompt: Virgil lost his cat. Patton is concerned and Logan does the only logical thing. Human au

based off of this post

Pairing: lamp

Word count: about 1,400

Read on Ao3

“But- Lolo, what if they never find their kitty? What if something happened to it?” Patton kept insisting. It had been at least half an hour since they had passed the poster and Patton with his big soft heart had immediately jumped onto it.

“They will probably be alright, Patton. Felines have a habit of wandering and returning to their home once they grow hungry or bored. Whoever distributed the posters might already have their cat back by now, the poster was from approximately four days ago.” Logan tried to reassure his boyfriend so he would finally - hopefully - focus on gathering all the groceries they needed.

“But- but Logan. What if the kitty got lost and now that there’s so much snow it doesn’t recognise the way home? What will happen to the poor baby?”

Logan sighed. It seemed, to him, that he would have to manage the groceries on his own. Roman could deal with Patton and his illogical love for cats once they got home.

Regardless of how annoyed he seemed, Logan still took a picture of the poster as Patton and him passed it on the way from the store to their car. If Patton really was that worried about the cat and its owner he would have to do the one and only logical thing. He would contact the owner of the runaway cat.

I lost my damn cat.

His name is Brendon but he only answers to Goblin because he’s an asshole but he’s my asshole and i love him and want him back.

50$ reward.

Text 202-555-0196

Once home Logan was abandoned to put away their purchases on his own while Patton greeted their other boyfriend, Roman, and told him all about the little black cat that was depicted on the poster.

While alone Logan took the opportunity to take action.

[202-555-0110] Salutations, I am looking to inquire whether or not you have found your feline companion again.

Logan did not have to wait long for an answer. It arrived within a few minutes of him sending the first message.

[202-555-0196] yeah i found him. the Bastard was at the shelter after being caught stealing some neighbour’s shoes

[202-555-0110] That is fortunate. I shall tell Patton. He saw the poster you had posted by the local store and worried for both you and your feline.

[202-555-0196] aw man that’s actually kinda nice of patton whoever they are tell them thanks from me plz? name’s virgil btw

[202-555-0110] Very well, Virgil. Seeing as I know your name and you know my boyfriend’s name I assume it is only polite to introduce myself. My name is Logan.

[202-555-0196] yeah. nice 2 meet you logan and thanks again

Logan deemed the conversation fairly over by that point and rejoined his boyfriends where they were cuddling on the living room couch with Patton in Roman’s lap.

“The person who distributed the posters has found their cat. Their name is Virgil and they would like to extend their thanks to you, Patton, for worrying about them and their cat.” He told them stiffly, making himself comfortable on the opposite end of the couch, pushing roman’s feet aside to make room for himself.

“What? Did you talk to them?” Roman asked at the same time that Patton let out a medium pitched squeal.

“Aww, it’s no problem! I’m just glad they have their kitty back! Can we talk to them too? I wanna make sure they’re okay.”

“Patton, there is no need to contact Virgil again, they have told me that they and their cat are alright.” Logan insisted but faltered.

Now, Logan has always been a serious, logical man. He did not do emotions. But in the face of Patton’s big sad eyes, even the most emotionless of men would crumble. And so did Logan.

“Fine! Alright! I will ask them if they are alright with talking to you.” He grumbled after resisting the puppy dog eyes for a whopping five seconds.

[202-555-0110] Apologies but Patton is insistent on double checking that you and your cat are alright. Will you be alright with talking to him?

[202-555-0196] yeah i guess? i mean- we’re fine so you can tell him that but it’s fine if he wants to know from me personally? so go ahead i guess?

Logan sighed and sent both of them the stranger’s number.

[202-555-0101] hi! This is patton, lo probably mentioned me, i just wanted to make sure you and your kitty are alright! I got really worried because of how cold it was

[202-555-0196] yeah we’re both fine. he was brought to the shelter by a neighbour before the snow set in

[202-555-0101] oh that’s great to hear! I just love cats a lot

What followed was not what Patton had expected. Admittedly, it startled him and Roman, who had been reading over his shoulder, a little bit.

What followed was a picture of a pale man with vibrant purple hair, holding a midnight black cat in his arm. The caption read

[202-555-0196] that’s us the day i got him back from the shelter he was brought to he was a bit peeved but not hurt in any way

Oh gosh they’re cute Patton thought and from the strangled noise Roman made he probably thought the same.

Logan made an inquisitive noise and leaned in to see what had his boyfriends so surprised. The stranger was admittedly… aesthetically pleasing, to say the least.

[202-555-0101] oh my gosh! That’s so cute! And aaah!!!! Look at the kitty cats lil toe beans!!!! He’s so adorable!

[202-555-0196] heh thanks this is one of the only good pics i have of him he never holds still long enough

“Can we keep them?” Patton burst out after a minute of staring at the picture again.

“Patton, they are a practical stranger and not a pet we could just keep. And we don’t even know if they would want to pursue a relationship, let alone with three men.”

“My darling, I think Logan might be right. No matter how handsome, we do not know anything about them.” Roman agreed, an unusual happenstance.

Patton pouted but nodded.

[202-555-0101] hey you seem like a really nice person, would you wanna meet with my boyfriends and me for coffee or something to become friends?

“Just cuz we can’t ask them to join us doesn’t mean i can’t make them our friend.”

[202-555-0196] uhm dunno I’m actually a really anxious guy don’t know how well meeting complete strangers would go over. we could keep talking over text for now maybe

[202-555-0101] of course! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything, I’m told I’m just a little over excited sometimes. And i would love to keep talking to you!

“Are you sure this is necessary, Virgil?”

“Yes Logan it is necessary. Brendon has escaped his coop once and was gone for days. I’m not risking it again. And besides, I don’t want him to go barging into nature and destroy the balance of the ecosystem.” Virgil insisted.

Once so shy to even talk to them he now seemed to have none of those fears. To be fair, it had been well over a year since they had ‘met’ but still.

They had kept talking over the phone for weeks before Virgil felt secure enough to meet them at a local coffee shop. Their friendship had evolved well and quickly and a few months later Patton, supported by Logan and Roman, had asked Virgil to join their relationship.

The man had been nervous but declared himself willing to try.

And all that was in the past now.

Virgil had just finished bringing all his boxes into their now shared home and Logan had begun assembling the 'cat coop’ as it was referred to. It was a simple safety measure to keep Virgil’s cat from running away or killing the local wildlife while still allowing for time outside of the house. Even Logan had to agree that it was a brilliant idea.

They eventually gave up on the coop for the time being, seeing as it was growing dark quickly.

The evening found the four of them cuddled up on the couch, tired out and content in each other’s embrace and there they stayed for the rest of the night, warm and loved and loving.

Taglist: @emthetimelady @ilovereadingandilovebreathing @stormcrawler75 @treehouseart

[joygaytrash]

Love Guidance - Chapter Six

Word Count: 1771

Notes: Howdy, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted the last chapter lmao. Anyways, there’s not much to say besides if y’all got any questions, feel free to ask.

September 2nd, 2017

Emile woke up early that morning, earlier than what he usually woke up at on the weekends. Emile usually woke up at 9 in the morning, but today, Emile woke up two hours early.

He sighed softly and pushed himself off his bed, gathering some clothes before going across the hall and into the bathroom. Emile placed his clothes on the counter then turned the shower to a decent temperature. After that, Emile took off his pajamas and got in the shower.

Emile hummed 'A Giant Woman' as he washed the shampoo out of his hair then grabbed the bottle of conditioner. Emile put the conditioner in his hair before putting the bottle back and grabbed the body wash.

When he finished his shower and got dressed, Emile quietly made his way into the kitchen. Elliott and Patton were still asleep on the couch, practically using each other as pillows. Emile couldn't help but smile at them, releasing a relaxed sigh.

Emile loved his kids from the bottom of his heart ever since day one. To Emile, it felt like it was only yesterday when he brought Elliot home from the foster group home. He remembered how excited Patton was to finally have someone else to tell his jokes and puns to. He remembered how emotional the three of them had gotten when Emile told Elliott that he was adopting them.

Another relaxed sigh left Emile's mouth when the coffee machine let out a soft beep behind him, telling him the coffee was done. He turned around and went over to the cupboard, grabbing himself mug. Emile then poured some coffee into his mug before placing the coffee pot back on the machine. After doing that, Emile grabbed the creamer from the fridge, pouring a generous amount into his coffee then put it back.

As Emile drank his coffee, he let the family dog, Muffin, outside, letting him do his business. Once Muffin came back inside, Emile closed the door behind him and watched as Muffin went onto the couch, laying down next to Patton. He smiled fondly at the memory of Muffin's first day in the house.

He remembers Patton begging him for months about wanting a dog, promising to take care of the dog as much as possible(Patton was nine at the time, there was no way Emile was letting him take care of a dog by himself). But, nevertheless, Patton had done an amazing job taking care of Muffin when he was younger.

After Emile finished the rest of his coffee, he placed his empty mug in the sink then went back to his room, deciding to get some house chores done while the kids were asleep. He stopped by the laundry room on his way back to his room, grabbing the basket of clean clothes off the floor and carried it to his room.

***

Elliott groaned at they woke up, the sun shining in their eyes. They blinked whatever sleep was left in their eyes before trying to move, only to be trapped by Patton and Muffin. Elliott let out another groan, closing their eyes again. Elliott opened their eyes once more when they heard their phone buzz on the coffee table.

They reached over to the table and grabbed their phone, looking at the screen. It was a message from Mitchell, Elliott's asshole of a boyfriend.

Mitch: hey babe, wyd?

You: Just woke up. Wyd?

Mitch: nothin' much

Mitch: just bored

Mitch: and thinkin' about you, of course ;)

Elliott rolled their eyes, leaving Mitchell on read as they turned their phone off and dropped it on their lap, sighing.

Patton woke up a few minutes later, stretching his arms and almost hit Elliott in the face when he stretched. Once their little brother was fully awake, the two untangled their arms and legs, making sure not to kick or hit each other on accident.

"We good now?" Patton asked once him and Elliott were finally apart.

"Yup. You think Pops is awake?"

Patton shrugged, standing up off the carpeted floor. Muffin sat on the couch and barked, making Patton laugh and pet him. Elliott smiled, pushing themself off the couch. They then made their way to the kitchen, Patton and Muffin followed behind them. Elliott grabbed two bowls and spoon while Patton gave Muffin his food.

"We need more food for Muffin," Patton pointed out, holding up the empty dog food bag.

"Okay, I'll let Pops know," Elliott said, grabbing the cereal box. Patton beamed at Elliott, giving them a quick hug. Elliott laughed as they gave Patton a one-armed hug.

Emile ended up coming back downstairs once he heard laughed, seeing Elliott and Patton in the kitchen. He walked in and hugged both of them, making Patton jump a little before he giggled. Emile laughed, placing a kiss on the two's foreheads.

"Morning Pops," Patton and Elliott greeted at the same time as Patton returned Emile's hug.

"Morning, you two. Whatcha putting together for breakfast?" Emile asked, letting go of his kids. Elliott shrugged, motioning towards the bowls and spoons on the counter. "We're just having cereal for breakfast. Also, we need to get more dog food for Muffin," Elliott explained.

"Okay. I can get some when I bring him to the pet groomers downtown. They have a pet store right next to it," Emile stated.

"Ooh, I wanna come! I've been aching to take Muffin out for a walk, if we are walking there, of course since we don't live that far from the downtown area," Patton said, rambling a little.

"Of course you can come, sweetheart. And we are walking, the weather is too nice to drive in," Emile replied, grabbing himself a bowl and spoon.

"Yay!"

Emile couldn't help but laugh, loving the hyper energy Patton gave off.

The three sat at the counter and had shared a simple breakfast of cereal. Emile was having his second cup of coffee for the day, fully waking himself up this time with this cup.

"So, you have fun last night?" Elliott asked, looking over at their dad. Emile nodded, taking another drink of coffee. "Mhm. I had a fantastic time and I met this nice guy there," Emile replied.

Patton let out a small squeal, "Oooh! Was he cute? What's his name?"

Emile blushed lightly at the second question, setting the mug down. "Well, yes, he is cute but we just met and I don't want to seem like I'm desperate or anything," Emile explained. Patton squealed again, running over to his dad and hugging him.

"Oh my gosh, Pops, you're in love!" Patton looked over at Elliott, "You hear that, Ell? Pops is in love!"

"I am not, you goof. All I said was the guy was cute, I never said I liked him," Emile said, trying not to laugh, "And besides, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even like me like that."

A small ding came from Emile's phone and Emile wiggled out of Patton's grip to grab it, looking at the screen to see who it was. And speak of the handsome devil himself; It was Remy.

Remy: Gm cutie <3

You: Morning :)

Remy: [Image attached]

Remy: The puppies have taken my son from me.

The picture Remy had sent Emile was Remy's son, Thomas, with probably 10 to 15 puppies on him and around him.

"Ooh, whose Remy, Pops?" Elliott asked, peering over Emile's shoulder.

"He's the guy I met last night,"

"And you already got his number? Nice,"

"Oh shush, El,"

You: Oh my gosh, he looks just like you

You: I guess I found the new meaning to like father, like son

Remy: Aw, Em, you flatter me ;)

"Oh my gosh, Patton was right, you're head over heels for this Remy guy," Elliott pointed out, placing their's and Patton's empty bowls in the sink. Emile rolled his eyes, focusing back on his conversation with a little smile clear on his face.

You: And you easily make me smile

Remy: That's the plan, Em ;)

And Emile couldn't help but laugh, causing Patton to let out an excited squeal.

***

"Dammy, I am such a disaster," Remy confessed, leaning on the deserted counter.

"No, really, I totally didn't notice," Damian sarcastically shot back, currently feeding the snakes in the reptile section of the store. Thomas was next to him, watching quietly in complete awe. The pet store was pretty empty that day, with it being Saturday and all, meaning people would hold off on running errands till later that afternoon.

Once each snake got their own mouse, Damian hopped off the step ladder, sticking the metal grabber back under the snake cage. He walked back over to the counter with Thomas following close behind him.

"So, Uncle Damian, what's on your work agenda for the day?" Thomas asked, resting his arms on the counter surface.

Damian pursed his lips. "Nothing much really. Brenda asked me to help out at the groomers today due to her main groomer being out sick and the appointment is at 11:45," Damian replied, just as another one of the pet shop employees walked in.

"Morning Courtney," Damian greeted.

"Morning Damian," Courtney greeted back. The flirtatious tone in her voice made Damian roll his eyes in annoyance and looked over at Remy.

"Damn gurl, she still be flirting with you?" Remy asked in a hushed voice, peering at Damian over the top of his sunglasses.

"Yup," Damian replied, saying the letter 'p' with a loud pop noise. "Even though I told her that I am not into women, she still does it," He added in his own hushed voice.

"Why are we talking quietly?" Thomas whispered, clearly confused. Remy laughed, ruffling Thomas' hair. The teen let out his own laugh, batting away his dad's hand.

"Hey Courtney, I need you to cover the counter for a good 45 minutes or so! I gotta go fill in for Brenda's main groomer next door!" Damian called out to the back of the store.

Courtney popped her head out from the break room, a big smile on her face. "Of course, Damian! Anything for you!" She replied, practically skipping over to the counter.

"Thanks!" He called back, disappearing into the hallway that connected the store and groomers, making for easy access. Remy sighed, looking down at his phone and waited for a certain someone to text him while Thomas went to go look at the fish in their tanks.

The bell at the front door rang, not really alarming neither Remy or Courtney. But it was the voice that caught Remy's attention.

"Oh, hi Remy!"

[unbefuckinglieveable]

Holific#1 - therealhmmlingle

// Hey guys holiday gift, for a loyal follower and friend. I had a lot to fit in into a five page limit. I hope it is okay! @therealhmmlingle

Pairing: prinxiety

Word count:3,274

Trope: Finding your partner on the brink of death.

Warnings: hypothermia, panic attacks, deprecating thoughts.

    “Uh… Hey Roman?  I am gonna have to show up late tonight. Something happened at work and they need me to come in.” Virgil sighed sadly, fidgeting in discomfort with the box in his pocket. Where it had been for a few months. He had only just paid it off enough to take it with him.   

   It had cost him the heat in his apartment, if it had not been for Philip, his and Roman's dog, he would have froze. It cost most the food he had in his apartment. He didn't care. After all, it was December, Christmas eve.  In a few days, It would all be worth it. The late nights, early mornings,and busy weekends. It would finally all work out.

   “Virgil!” Came his partner's sharp voice, snapping him out of his little trance.

   “I'm here! Sorry princey.” The anxious adult said with a sigh. He hadn't realized he had spaced out.

   “Virgil I can't do this anymore. Your never around! When you are you just sleep in my bed! We don't talk like we used to and now you can't even keep your promise to spend the holiday with me? Because of work? Don't bother coming tonight. I'll be by to pick up Philip tomorrow. What is the point in being in a relationship with someone who isn't there?”  

   “Roman wait!”

   “Goodbye Virgil.”

   “Ro, sto-” The phone went dead in Virgil's ear leaving the man in stunned silence.  All this time, four years. Gone. Virgil felt numbed. This couldn't be happening. He got up and dressed. He did not work his ass off to let this entire thing fall apart. He gathered up Philip and the flowers he had purchased for Roman the night before.

     He rushed to his car his mind flooding with fear. Fears that he tried to push at bay with the stereo of the car.  Turning it up so loud he couldn't hear his thoughts. The anxious man tossed his phone on the seat so it wouldn't be uncomfortable in his pocket. Virgil peeled out of the parking lot from his apartment complex and  onto the back roads of the area.

     Roman's home was a bit far,but for a man as extravagant  and popular as him, Virgil could understand him wanting his home to be a bit secluded, so he didn't have to have a public face on when he opened the door every day. That was enough to start spiraling, things as simple as how fast Roman could move on, how Virgil could be too little too late, and he could easily be fired from his job for calling off last minute.  Virgil had sucked as a worker lately, he understood that.

     Virgil sucked at everything, he couldn't even function as an adult. There was no food,no warmth(besides a small space heater), soon he wouldn't have a phone again and  fuck if he knew when he would get it back if he got fired. He is a loser, and one that Roman Prince had already gotten rid of.

   There was a skid on ice as he pulled to the side of the road threw the car in park. He climbed out of the car and shoved the door shut sinking to sit on the snow below his car window.  Thoughts blurred together in a whirlwind, the rapid rise and fall of his chest fast. The beat of his heart against his ribs like a prisoner trying to escape. He realized how alone he was without Roman. It sent him reeling.

‘alonealonealone-notsafe-failure-fuckup-notsafenotsafe-broken-alone-I can't-Ican't- lose-losermistake-not-can’t-airairair-fuck-fault-can’t-my-alone-fail-nononono- Ro-’

    Virgil's panic continued for a solid fifteen minutes even after he was through the worst of it he leaned against his car, counting out his breaths. It was another ten minutes after that he realized he should get back on the road.However Virgil was exhausted, and he didn't want to move even though his jeans  were wet from the snow. Slowly he felt the exhaustion catching up to him. It wouldn't be safe for him to drive. He stood up and pulled at the handle of his car. Nothing. Again.

    “ No! Fuck!” Virgil hissed, as he heard Prince Philip bark from inside   He hit the side of his window in frustration looking at the pup safe inside. He went to each door rapidly tugging at he handles as his dog followed him to each and every spot, like he always does.Therefore breaking a window was not going to work. At least not without hurting Philip.

    Virgil glanced around the road, and grimaced when he realized he had no clue where he was. In his panic he hadn't paid attention to the world about him. The anxious man swore in frustration and kicked his tires. He sat on his hood trying to think. There had to be some stupidly simple...who was he kidding? His phone was in the car he was locked out of nobody will look for him, he has no idea where he is and his love gave up on him.

--

    Roman Prince was the master of being extra, the prince of drama. Sometimes it just happens it rolls over into his personal life. Such a rollover could lead to terrible decisions, like breaking up with a partner of four years because he got way too busy around the holiday season and slept whenever he came over. An impulse mistake.  However he was an asshole and he committed.

   Something Roman was well acquainted with.

    Currently the actor paced around his lavish home hoping that Virgil would call him back. Even though he understood he didn't deserve it in the slightest. A tricky thing with pride, it wouldn't allow him to cave and admit such stupid mistakes. Even if they were irrational, and immature. In honesty, the actor had no idea why his partner had needed to take so many hours. Not when Roman had offered to pay his bills.

   ‘Just to get away from me, then.’ Roman thought  to himself for the hundredth time that week. If Roman was being honest with himself, he knew Virgil was better off, Roman just wasn't enough for him. The actor was way to loud and affectionate and chaotic and well hyper. Virgil was just…beautiful. Roman loved all the things that made him so different.   

     However it seemed everything that the actor tried to do made the other anxious or bored him, or frustrated him. It wasn't fair to make Virgil that uncomfortable. Besides, Virgil was putting distance between them anyway. A mere coincidence that it came to a head at two p.m on Christmas eve.

     Roman took a seat in his chair in the living room glancing at the tree in the far corner.  He had looked forward another family holiday, before Virgil and Logan came along, it was just himself and Patton. Which was nice, but it wasn't the big family event he wanted.  There were no debates, no Variety, just cards from fair weather friends, and Patton watching movies and baking in his kitchen.

--

   Virgil shivered slightly still sitting on his hood an hour later in the deserted back roads of wherever the hell he was.  His head dropped into his hands. Philip still staring at him paws up in the dash warm air still blowing his golden fur. Virgil just started crying feeling the volume of his music vibrating the windshield.  He didn't have much energy. The broken man was cold and exhausted from the week. And it was back to just being him and- No he didn't even have that. Logan was with Patton and would follow him. And Philip was gonna be...locked in this car tomorrow.

    Why couldn't he just get it right this one time?

   Virgil felt the bitter wind bite his ears again. His car stuttering beneath him. A painful reminder he was supposed to get gas.  “ Fu-fuck you too universe.” He said bitterly and he laid there as the car's engine wound down to a halt beneath him. And he curled up on his side waiting, hoping that some asshole would drive by.

Anyone.

--

    Roman jolted upright when his phone started  to chime he practically dove across the room only to feel moderate dread when he saw Logan's name. He answered hesitantly, “ Hello specs! How are you this afternoon?”

    “ I am satisfactory Roman, I was gonna bring over the stuff  Patton made for you and Virgil tonight is that okay?” Roman sighed softly, he was not ready to have this conversation.  

    “ Virgil isn't coming over tonight, or for a while.  We split up this morning.”

    “ Oh, well that is unfortunate, I wonder why Virgil didn't call me. then?”

    “ He went to work instead of coming here pocket protector.  Look you guys can come over later. “

    “ Are you honestly that mad about my brother taking care of priorities?”

    “ I am tired of never being a priority.”

    “ Falsehood. You are one of the most important people in the world to him. He doesn't trust that many people and if you're going to brush him by for taking tender care of his independence  I don't know what to say.” Roman ended the call slamming it on the counter and sauntering to his room after grabbing the champagne from the bucket on the table.

     He didn't need to be yelled at by someone outside of the situation, how was that right?  

--

    Logan pulled his phone from his ear dialing Virgil's number,  walking upstairs to grab his keys. How dare Roman treat his brother that way?  He said nothing to Patton as he passed, prompting a concerned look. He let his partner trail behind, Logan would explain momentarily.

    “ Virgil please pick up…” He muttered to himself as he looked for the car keys, since they weren't on the key hook. He turned to Patton, “ Patton, where did you leave the keys?”

    “Hey,  Happy Holiday's, Logan, if this is you, text. I'll get back to you. Roman, I love you I will call in a moment. If it is you popstar?  Text me I got some puppy pics on standby. Anyone else? Wrong number.”   

    “ Virgil, that is not professional voicemail, we talked about this. Let me know you're alright.”

--

    Virgil could see the light of his phone screen light up with his brother's face  and grimaced as he watched as Philip barked and clawed at the phone for being loud.  Virgil smacked a tired fist on the window as he continued to shiver. He had a little hope maybe they would realize he was gone.  

   His mind was trying to tell him something… something important but he was a bit confused. The hood was growing cold quickly, and he didn't know what to do. He could follow the road, but if he did that, the broken man might get even more lost, there could be nothing. He only saw trees and road to the horizon basically. What if he couldn't find his car again? What if he couldn't find Philip again?  

   Maybe they would care..

   Virgil was deliriously deliberating with himself, and it was crippling him. His mind was mildly foggy and he didn't feel vigilant and that was causing him to panic again.

--

   Logan didn't like the fact his brother didn't answer his call, he wanted to drive down to the younger's apartment. Virgil wasn't one to let the voice mail get it. Even at work. Logan only called when it was important after all. So to hear the voicemail, it left a bad taste in his mouth.  

     Patton had stopped him, after all he was an adult. Logan waited for hours even though the concern on his partner's face was ever growing. The sun had begun to dip behind the horizon when Logan stood up and walked to the door. “ I'm leaving, I would like your company, and an explanation why your expression is growing ever more somber. “

     The younger partners grabs his coat from the coat hook, his hand, wavering as he heard Logan asked about his expression. “ Roman dumped him for not being around, Ro was complaining about it the last couple weeks… but Virgil was working to pay off an engagement ring. So I understood Virgil needing space during work. But he is off and should have called you.”

      “ I uh I can't believe my brother is uh is in a twisted version of  'The Gift of the Magi’. The irony, truly painful. Come along, it seems we are going to have to pull off a Christmas miracle.”   Logan muttered as his partner let out a little squeal.

   Logan pulled out his phone on the way to his car Patton climbing into the passenger seat.   Logan waited for someone to answer the phone at Virgil's work. A small breath of relief came when someone answered.

 “ Hot topic Dan speaking can I help you?”

    “ Dan, this is Virgil's brother Logan, is he there still?”

    “ Nah man he didn't show up today, the manager is furious.”

     “ Right, if he comes in tell him to call me. We haven't seen him all day.” With that he hung up glancing at Patton, “ Virgil didn't GO to work. Call your friend. Tell him to start calling Virgil or get up and look for him like us. “

--

   Roman was  staring up at the fairy light's that wrapped around his ceiling. The unopened bottle of champagne by his side. He couldn't do it, no he wouldn't drink his problems away. He was not that person,never was. The actor heard his phone ring from the kitchen. The campfire song song, Patton's favorite, he stood slowly and followed the damning noise down the stairs. It drew him in like an ominous siren song, drawing him to a swift execution.

   His hand picked it up from the dining table, his eyes glanced at the burning candles almost burnt out before him.  There was no hesitation as he answered his phone, assuming the same role he always did with Patton. The role of the happy best friend who didn't have a care in the world. Except for the fact it crumpled around him “ Hola mi amigo, como estás?”

    ” Roman, Virgil never went to work today.   He hasn't answered Logan's call and we are worried. Can you help us find him? He is probably devastated and we need to make sure he is okay. ”

    This broke the character instantly for Roman, as mad as he was, he did love Virgil.  “ Wh- wait-uh why would he be upset? He was the one putting distance between us?”

    “ You absolute moron, if he is working a minimum wage job-”

    “ Logan!”

    “ No Patton. My brother has been missing for hours because this theater clown decided to be self righteous! A minimum wage job on a hallmark holiday that puts to shame hundreds of his class. He has a man he loves, and would want to give him a great gift. Roman I know you don't understand, I am well aware of that-”

    “I am leaving now, Logan, not arguing.”  Roman piped up ending the call with no hesitation. He gathered his coat and keys.  He didn't know where Virgil was but he had to find him.

    He called his ex in a panic as he sprinted down  the driveway to his car.

--

    Virgil was curled up in a ball on the cold hood of his car  the gas had run out a small while ago. Which meant the thrum of the music was gone. He was in silence at least until the smooth bass of Roman's voice singing to him tickled his ears. Philip  immediately pawing at the screen. The tired man listened to the sweet sound as it hit his ears. If it was the last time, he was okay with that now. He bumped his fist against the windshield in a rhythmic manner

     The broken man thought when the music cut off his love had been sent to voicemail but the tapping of his fist continued, as did the barking.  Virgil normally looked, bit he was tired his body shaking apathy gripping him.

--

  “Hey,  Happy Holiday's, Logan, if this is you, text. I'll get back to you. Roman, I love you-. Click”.  There was a moment of relief, though it was tainted with dread.  Virgil answered his call, at least that was what Roman thought, until Philip barking was the majority of what he could hear.

  “ Philip? What the hell? Where's Virgil?” Roman said shocked at the absurdity of his dog answering. That was when he heard it, a very gentle thumping. Like Virgil was trying to get attention from him.   

   ‘ If this works… I will stop teasing My Chemical Romance. I swear.' The actor thought    to himself before howling to get the dog to paw at the screen maybe he could get him to hit speaker.   What happened next might have been a Christmas miracle, or simply just luck but he knew. He could never tease the band again. The thumping was clearer now.

   “ Virgil? Are you there? “ There was a moment of silence but it was followed by a heavy thump thump. Heavier than it had been at least. Virgil was able to hear him but couldn't vocally respond. Okay.   “. Virgil. I need to know where you on the way to my house or work. One tap for me two taps for work.”.

Thump

   “ Alright I am coming I am gonna drive and find you.  Okay I am going to get off-” Roman was cut off from a thump of protest. Okay. The actor started singing as he drove around, very gentle song met with the rhythmic beating against the window.  Ro was breaking speed limits trying to find his partner. It sounded like he had taken back roads. Too quiet to be the main roads.

--

    Virgil was hopeful, he wanted to be awake for Roman when he came, but he was starting to think it may not happen.   He was so cold everything was numb and he felt that even the tapping on the windshield was taking the strength of ten men.  The rhythm slowed and he heard Roman say something to him. There wasn't much he could do. The broken man was able to hear the actors tone grow frantic.  But in the minutes passing he couldn't understand what was being said.

   At least not enough to make a difference. He understood an occasional shout that broke though, ‘Vir-’.   Other than that, it was lost on him. By fifteen minutes later the tapping had almost ceased. The shaking was constant and he couldn't control it,  nor did he care to.

   He could hardly hear a word, yet he felt familiar strong arms around him and pick up his body with minimal effort.  He felt himself get set in the back seat of a car feeling a familiar clutter of costumes and soft props. It felt hot in the car, felt painful like  running a cold hand under too warm of water. Then the door opened on the passenger side and Philip bounded in. The other back door opened again and he felt Roman climb in and remove his coat and shirt.  

   Roman removed his own shirt pressing it against the cut in his elbow and wrapped himself around Virgil trying to warm him up while the ambulace located them.  The actor went to move the sweatshirt to the passenger seat when he saw a small box fall from his pocket. It brought tears to his eyes. “ I am sorry Virgil, so so sorry.”

   “I...love you…” Virgil sighed,his voice weak and thick from exhaustion as Roman felt his body quivering, it was slowly warming up.

   “ I love you too..” Roman whispered  carding his fingers through chilled hair. “ I'll pay for your window later.” They may not be okay right now, but it will get better.