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ashs-random-writing · 1 year

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Time from Inside the Clock

Ao3

REBLOGS>>>>LIKES

Virgil woke up that morning like usual, except the human found him. He wished for the day to start over so he could live without being found. It worked, and now things would be perfect if the human would just stop finding him every day.

When Virgil woke up, it was with a gasp. He couldn’t remember what dream had elicited this reaction, but he was still freaked out.

He ventured out of his bedroom, and through his tunnel system towards the large grandfather clock in the human’s house. He could get inside the clock with the tunnels, and he would rather do that to check the time than venture out into the open.

The clock was taller than even the human himself, but Virgil knew how to climb quickly. He looked at the numbers in their mirrored state, and read that it was 3:13 am

The human usually woke up at seven, so he could do a borrowing run if he wanted. He would need to that day anyway; he was running low on food, and he knew he wouldn’t get a chance for the next few days at least. He exited the clock and walked towards the kitchen.

His human was loud, loved bright colours, art, was impulsive and was just about the exact opposite of Virgil. He had painted his kitchen different shades of red, with patterns on most cabinets. Some had rainbows, some had flowers, and other patterns that were far too bright when Virgil had just woken up.

It was an old house, so a lot of walls had texture to them, and so did a lot of furniture. It was perfect for borrowing, even the tunnels were a lot more practical than the newer ones. Though, that wasn’t blaming the borrowers that built newer tunnels, it was blaming the humans that were making their walls so thin nowadays

His tunnels were amazing; one passageway even led out to the garden for quick escapes. His only problem with them was the fact that the main portion of the tunnels (like the storage rooms and bedroom) were underneath the floorboards. And, with how loud the human was, this really disrupted Virgil’s sleep. Virgil almost wished that just once he could tell the human to shut up, to walk lighter for once, to not walk like an elephant.

He knew the human wasn’t doing it on purpose, but it was still majorly annoying and gave Virgil frequent migraines. He threw his hook onto the kitchen counter, and climbed. The food that would stay good for a while was in the cabinet with the flowers, so he threw his hook again

He shoved food into his bag, and slung it back onto his shoulders. When he was climbing down, he started to hear footsteps. His heart started racing, and his thoughts ran at a mile a minute. It was nowhere near seven o’clock yet, what was he doing awake?

Virgil was still very much out in the open, and there was no way he’d be able to climb down in enough time to hide or get back into his tunnels. He clung to his string and braced himself for whatever horrors awaited him when the human inevitably saw him.

He heard the human yawn and the light flickered on. He held his breath and prayed that he wouldn’t be seen. But, he knew it was pointless. The human gasped, and suddenly he was being grabbed in hands that were too big and too tight.

He yelped. One of his arms was restrained, but the other was outside of the grip. It was very uncomfortable, and very terrifying. He struggled, trying to figure out what to do.

“What are you? Why are you in my kitchen? What are you doing? What’s your name? Do you have a name? If not I could name you, I suppose... I’m Roman” The human trailed off, and Virgil tried to ignore his discomfort at the idea of being named

He refused to answer the human’s questions, so he didn’t give away any sensitive information that could put other borrowers in danger. He was still struggling in the grip, and the human seemed amused at that. His captor started walking towards his bedroom, likely for something to contain him (assuming Virgil’s conclusion that he wanted to keep him to be correct)

Virgil didn’t like the feeling of being moved against his will. The human deposited him onto a shelf that (unfortunately) wasn’t connected to any tunnels and was too high up for him to jump down with his hook and string still in the kitchen. He shook, watching the human rummage through boxes until he found one with high enough walls that he wouldn’t be able to escape

He tried to calm his breathing down, and tried to think of a way out. Roman was still looking for a suitable box, so he had an undetermined amount of time to think

He had left most things in the tunnels, so he didn’t even have his needle, or his spare hook, or anything but his bag. He rummaged through his bag for something, anything, that could help. Nothing. Nothing but food that he had stashed earlier. Roman was walking back to him, box in hand. Virgil panicked, and threw a cracker at the human

Roman was only momentarily puzzled, before looking back at the borrower with a more annoyed expression. Virgil’s heart raced, and his brain was screaming to run.

“That wasn’t very nice” The human was still loud. Even more loud than usual, since Virgil was actually in the same room as him for once.

Virgil could barely hear him over the blood rushing in his ears and his brain’s screaming to run, to hide, to do anything except be out in the open. Roman reached out to grab at him, and he hissed.

Roman paused, a confused expression on his face. It didn’t last long and soon, he was back in that hand that was too tight.

He didn’t think. This was the thing he’d been training his entire life to avoid, all he could do was panic. He bit down on the finger closest to him as he was moved throughout the air

Suddenly he was falling. Straight into the box. He landed at an awkward angle on his arm, and couldn’t help the scream or sobs that forced their way out. He could make out Roman’s face above the box’s opening, looking concerned

Virgil didn’t care. He grasped at the arm that he was a hundred percent sure was probably broken. He could hear Roman frantically apologising above him, but all he could think about was pain

Why did he have to be so stupid, to borrow whilst the human was still in the house? It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but everything went wrong so quickly. Roman was reaching into the box saying something about patching him up. Virgil scrambled away from the hand, which then lingered there for a simple moment

When the hand retreated, Virgil had curled up in a corner of the box and was desperately clutching at his arm as though he could magically stop the pain

Roman had left the room, so Virgil was alone with his thoughts. He knew it was still early morning, still long before the human would usually wake up. He let his eyes slip shut for a while, waiting until the human came back in. Virgil’s eyes opened when the door did, and he listened to the human, who was on the phone with someone. Virgil froze, was Roman telling people about him?

He tried to listen to the words being said

“Please come over as soon as you can, I accidentally dropped it -them?- and I think their arm is hurt and I don’t know if they can understand me or not but I think they’re scared, just please come over” A pause as the person on the other end responded

“Okay, thanks Logan” The call ended

Virgil thought that name over in his mind. Logan, that was one of the humans friends, right? The smart one, he was pretty sure. Virgil tried to move his arm, only to bite his tongue to stop making noise. Roman went closer to the box, looking down at Virgil with a mix of pity and concern

Virgil stared back up, and Roman started speaking again, but softer and quieter this time

“I am super sorry about your arm, little guy, I didn’t mean to drop you. I don’t know if you can understand me, but I think you’re too scared of me to let me help you, so I’ve got my friend to help, okay? He’ll be here soon” Virgil just stared blankly

A while later, the human’s friend did show up, looking annoyed at having to wake up before five am for this. Virgil winced; annoyed humans were almost as bad as angry humans

Virgil didn’t let himself be picked up. He was still panicking, still running on his fight or flight responses. Logan sighed above him, sounded even more annoyed. Even more reason to not let himself get picked up.

He had been running from the hand, every time it attempted to grab him. The hand retracted, and Virgil collapsed onto his knees.

He had never seen a human this close up before, and now there was two. It was... overwhelming, to say the least.

The humans were quiet above him, before a hushed whisper started between them

“I fear we may have overwhelmed them”

“What do you mean ‘we’? You’re the one who was trying to grab them over and over”

Virgil ignored them. How did humans deal with constant interaction with others? The rest of the day went by in a blur of panic, crying and pain. He had fallen asleep at some point, pure exhaustion made from the overwhelmingness of the day catching up to him. That was probably why he didn’t wake up when the humans bandaged up his arm

He felt incredibly uneasy knowing that the humans had held him whilst he was asleep. He had stared at the sling his arm was in for a solid minute, and he had felt a lump growing in his throat.

Roman hadn’t gone to work that day, instead, he chose to marvel at Virgil’s existence the entire day. Virgil just wanted to go home. Roman had given him food, which was a relief, but Virgil would still much rather be in bed, or roaming through the tunnels. Or doing literally anything except sitting in a box. He wished he could start the day over again so he wouldn’t get caught

He let out a small sob, how was it that borrowers had been so unheard of for years and years, and then Virgil had to ruin it, like an idiot.

He sat there for hours, as the humans did their things around the house. The box was ‘carefully’ moved into the living room (it didn’t feel very careful to Virgil)

Logan left the house to go back to his own, and Roman said goodnight and went to bed. It was dark again now. Virgil went to sleep.

When Virgil woke up, it was with a gasp. He looked around the room, his room, not a box. Was that a dream...? He usually forgot his dreams by now, but that was just as present in his memory as it would’ve been if it had happened yesterday. His arm didn’t hurt anymore, so it couldn’t have been real, right?

He started to walk towards the clock, wanting to know the time and it it was worth it to go back to sleep. When he was climbing to the top, he made himself ignore the memories from his dream. He stared at the numbers on the clock, starting to wonder what was going on

3:13.

Probably just a coincidence, but maybe he would wait for Roman to go to work to do the borrowing. Just in case. His emotions were still running high from that (dream? Vision?) so he just waited inside the clock. The hands seemed to tick at a minute per second, and everything that Virgil did made him more tense, more nervous

About twenty minutes later, he saw the human’s silhouette pass by the clock, he heard a yawn and a light switch turning on

He shuddered, that was when he was found. The human seemed to just have come down for a drink or something. Virgil climbed down from the clock, and into the walls. He didn’t know what was happening

His first thought was that maybe he had become a psychic, and could see the future, but he hoped not. That sounded like a horrible power to have with anxiety; never knowing when you’re panicking about nothing or if it’s actually something? No thanks.

He knew the human probably wasn’t gonna wake up again until his alarm went off, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He could still remember the pain that shot up his arm and had stayed there.

He climbed his way to near where Roman’s bedroom was. The human was back to being asleep.

Virgil didn’t know what was happening, almost didn’t want to know, but he did know that he had been given a second chance at the worst day of his life, and he wasn’t going to ruin it

He climbed back down to the floorboards, and back into bed. He had double checked that he had turned off all of the lights in the tunnels, particularly the light in the most obvious entrance in the kitchen

It was a mouse-hole type entrance in the corner of the kitchen, but he had put some borrowed fairy lights in there for when he wanted to see a little bit

He waited until he heard the loud footsteps directly above him (and he was developing another migraine, great) and the front door. He waited an extra few minutes, just in case, before going towards the mouse hole. He had brought his spare hook, his needle, and some other tools. He wouldn’t be as unprepared as he had been

The food wasn’t exactly where it had been the first time, but Roman had been in the kitchen before him this time, so that was to be expected. He shoved a few crackers in his bag, and started moving towards the next cabinet. This cabinet held sweet foods, like chocolate. Most of the packets had already been opened, and the human wasn’t going to notice three or four pieces missing.

Those went in his bag too. He started climbing back down to his tunnels, but, as if by magic, the front door opened. Virgil could feel the déjà vu overwhelm him as he clung to his string once again. Hopefully, he wouldn’t break his arm this time.

He wondered how he had been managed to be found twice, on two separate occasions that would usually be safe. Roman gasped behind him. Virgil didn’t need to listen to his rambling ball of questions to know it would be the same as the first time.

This time, however the questions came before the grabbing. When he did get grabbed, it was more gentle than the half asleep Roman had managed, though now both of his arms were restrained

Roman did the same thing of taking him to a different room (though, this time it was the living room) and placing him in a high place.

Virgil waited until the human was distracted, before getting out his spare hook, and climbing down. Roman chose that moment to have found a suitable place for Virgil to be kept, and looked up

He and Virgil made eye contact and the human jumped up, and practically ran up to where the borrower was swinging

Virgil squeezed his eyes shut, and Roman’s grip (tighter than it had been either of the times Roman had found him) enveloped him

It was painful, and he let out a small noise as all of the air in his chest was forced out. The human looked angry that he was trying to escape. He was talking to Virgil, but Virgil couldn’t make himself listen to the voice that was just a little bit too loud and he tried to move in the grip that was just too tight

Roman’s grip loosened a little while later, and Virgil took a deep breath of air. He doubted the human even realised how tight he had held the borrower.

Roman was still talking, but softer, and he sounded more concerned. Virgil tried to focus on what was being said

“-re you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Virgil made a small noise, neither confirming or denying the human’s question

He was placed in a box (similar height to the other one, but it was smaller in width and length). Virgil assumed that it was meant to be gently.

He retreated to the corner, almost thankful that he had no broken bones. He was definitely bruised where the human’s hands had been, but he was still in one piece; that meant that Roman wouldn’t have to call any friends, right?

Roman was watching him, and Virgil was still feeling every part of his body dissolve into panic. He looked back up to the human with a look he hoped didn’t look too helpless

Roman was holding his phone over the box now, and Virgil realised just a little too late that he was taking a photo. Virgil didn’t think that he would be able to bring himself to speak at all, even if he wanted to.

Roman seemed amused by him, in fact, this was probably the longest time he’d seen the human focus on any one thing. He hated that. He looked away from the human’s gaze. Roman didn’t even seem to notice how intimidating he was, how terrifying he was to Virgil

He was about fifteen times Virgil’s size, and was a lot louder, and not as attentive to detail, and so it was easier for Virgil to get hurt in his hands than it would be if someone with more of an attention span was handling him. He’d rather have no one handling him, to be fair, but Roman wasn’t the best option

He let out a humourless laugh, just quiet enough that the human didn’t notice. What had he done to deserve this?

It turned out that Roman had messaged the picture to a group chat of friends, who each turned up within an hour. Logan was there first, then Patton, then Janus.

They each wanted to see him immediately. They were loud. Logan wanted to know everything he could about Virgil, though didn’t pick him up or get too close, as to not overwhelm him. He seemed more interested than he did the day before, though that could be due to the fact he wasn’t woken up in the early morning this time

Patton squealed at first, though quietened himself down after Virgil covered his ears. Patton kept rambling about how cute he was, and reaching out to pet his head and ruffle his hair. Virgil tried to run from these interactions. After the first few failed attempts, Patton seemed to get the message and didn’t touch him.

Janus simply stared at him with that silent, questioning gaze. He was somehow more intimidating than any of them.

There were too many people, too many humans, and he couldn’t bear it. He started crying, retreating into his corner and bringing his knees to his chest. The humans seemed concerned for him, making small comments, and speaking in hushed whispers between them all

By the time they’d all left, Virgil just wanted to sleep. He wanted to go home, he wanted to have a nap, he wanted to never see another human ever again

He fell asleep.

When Virgil woke up, it was with a gasp. Home again. He remembered that on the first iteration of the day he had wished to do the day over again so he wouldn’t be found, maybe all he had to do was not get found?

It turned out that that was easier said than done. He knew that the human would be home from work early, so that might disrupt his plans, but he could try borrowing in between Roman waking up the first time and the second.

His human was a heavy sleeper most of the time, and he didn’t wake up during that time last time...

He waited until he heard the footsteps above him go into the kitchen, and he waited until they retreated.

He borrowed the same way he had the past two times. And this time, he made it without Roman making an unexpected appearance. He restocked his storage room, and he climbed up into the walls, and into a vent and he watched the human sleep. Virgil wondered just how much the human ever thought about his actions.

Virgil leant against the vent cover with a sigh. It made a creaking noise, and suddenly opened against his weight. Virgil tripped out, luckily landing on a blanket. Unluckily, that blanket was on Roman’s bed

Roman had woken up from the noise and his eyes landed on Virgil almost immediately. A startled sound made it out of Virgil’s mouth, and he tried to run away from the giant hand.

The uneven surface of the bed made him trip almost immediately. The hand closed around him, loosely this time and Virgil’s main worry became being dropped, rather than being squeezed too tight.

When he managed to look at Roman’s face, he abruptly realised that the human hadn’t fully woken up yet. Roman was bad enough when he was awake, but a version of him that was even less aware of his surroundings? Virgil would rather not

Roman looked at him through eyes that were still half closed.

“Are you... real?” He slurred out, and Virgil, once again stayed quiet. Roman was starting to drift off back to sleep, still holding the borrower.

Virgil hoped that once he was asleep, he could slip away unnoticed and get his appearance written off as a peculiar dream. However, the grip tightened around him, and he was brought closer to Roman’s chest, as though he was one of those soft toys he often slept close to.

Virgil squirmed, for the first time hating that his human was a heavy sleeper.

Roman mumbled something nonsensical above him, and Virgil squirmed even more desperately. He looked at the digital alarm clock next to the bed. 6:27. He had just over half an hour to free himself from this mess before the human woke up

He took a deep breath, and tried freeing his arms first. The grip was too tight by the smallest margin. He resigned himself to his fate. Hopefully, the day would reset again later.

Suddenly, he was moved through the air again, as Roman moved his hand onto the pillow and Virgil was practically squished against the giant’s face. He squirmed again, but he had no luck. He couldn’t see the alarm clock from where he was held, but he hoped Roman would wake up soon, if only to get him out of this uncomfortable situation

When the alarm went off, Roman groaned, and (luckily with the hand Virgil wasn’t in) violently hit a button on the clock. He opened his eyes drowsily, before seeing Virgil

He stared for a few moments before seeming to remember his half-asleep kidnapping. He seemed to become excited

Virgil just waited to be put down.

“What are you? Who are you? What’s your name?” He paused, as if to let Virgil answer, and when the borrower stayed silent, he carried on speaking

“Do you not have one? I can give you a name if you want, but I will have to get back to you on that. Now, where to put you...” He started looking around the room, his eyes eventually landing on the pocket on his pyjama shirt. Virgil was placed in there the same way he had seen Roman do with interesting new objects.

He could hear Roman rummaging through things, presumably boxes.

The pocket was uncomfortable, but Virgil endured it. He was pulled out a little while later, but he was placed in the same box he was the first time

This time it had a blanket inside.

The day progressed much like the previous two.

Roman seemed more confused about his existence this time, however, and he kept asking the questions over and over. Virgil still didn’t answer.

He was picked up again about half way through the day, and Roman grabbed his arm and started moving it, as though marvelling at how small Virgil was. . Virgil held his breath and tried to take his hand away

He was placed back into the box, and Roman started to ramble to him, not really talking about anything in particular. Virgil zoned out.

He went to sleep after that.

When Virgil woke up, it was with a gasp. This was the twentieth loop.

He was getting sick of the same things over and over. No matter what he did, Roman would find him.

So far, Virgil had been found by:

-Borrowing at 3 am

-Falling out of a vent

-Borrowing when the human was at work

-Staying inside the clock (Roman seemed to decide he wanted to know how it worked, very spontaneously)

-He went into the garden, only for Roman to decide a bit of spontaneous gardening

-He tripped over and fell out of a different vent

-and many more stupid ways that he was found.

The universe was obviously messing with him. What were the odds that every time he dodged previous findings, he was found in an increasingly stupid way?

He had sustained injuries from a few timelines. Namely, breaking his arm the first time, a lot of bruises from Roman holding him too tight, he broke his leg after falling out of the second vent, he gained a large cut on his arm from a rose thorn when Roman found him in the garden

He had hurt his foot trying to run in one of the timelines.

It was decided. The universe simply hated him.

He would have stayed in bed all day, and stayed unfound that way, however, it was no good to escape a time loop if it meant he’d starve to death because he didn’t get food when he had even a small chance. Besides, with his luck, Roman would probably start taking the floorboards for impulsive art or something

Virgil groaned, hearing the human walk loudly above him. He wanted to tell him to shut up. Wait. He was in a time loop, there were no long-lasting consequences and Roman would probably find him anyway. He could take maybe a day’s break off of trying to escape the loop...

He got out of bed and climbed through the tunnels until he got to the kitchen. He glared at the human, who was suddenly staring at him

“What-”

Virgil cut off his line of questioning that he had heard all too many times

“Hello. I know what you’re going to ask, so... I’m Virgil,” He smiled in a way that he hoped conveyed that he wasn’t happy to be meeting the human “I’m here just to ask you, if, for once in your life, you could walk quietly? You really disrupt my sleep when you walk as though you weigh as much as an elephant” He crossed his arms

Roman’s shocked expression quickly changed to one of offense.

“I don’t walk that loudly, how dare you? Besides, why are you even in my house? It’s,” He checked the time on his phone “It’s three thirty in the morning, aka far too early to be arguing with a probably imaginary tiny person in my kitchen”

Virgil rolled his eyes “Oh yeah, real mature. Calling me imaginary rather than admitting that you are incredibly loud at everything you do”

The argument lasted a little while longer, and Virgil figured out how freeing it felt to finally voice all of his complaints. Roman surprisingly didn’t pick him up at all

Even when he tried, he, very surprisingly, listened when Virgil told him not to. Eventually, Roman went back to bed, and Virgil got his food and went back to his house

He was unsure whether Roman thought him to be dream or not after he woke up, but he did notice that he was walking quieter. That day was strange, but Virgil would probably do it again at some point if he had the chance

He got into bed

When Virgil woke up, it was with a gasp. By now, it was the thirtieth loop, at least. Something that Virgil had found out in the last few was that the loops went smoother and with less injuries and less migraines if he talked.

Roman even let him go in a few, even listened when Virgil asked to be kept secret. Virgil would never admit so to another borrower, but he would probably claim Roman as one of the few good humans.

Today, he had to keep away from Roman at all costs, he wanted to break the loop.

First, he waited for the human to get up and back to bed, then he had to do a borrowing run, and then he had to go to the clock, because when Roman got home from work in the timeline that Virgil was awake under the floorboards, he started hearing noise under there and decided to check it out, and then he had to leave the clock before Roman decided he needed to know what was inside.

Then, he had to watch the human’s gardening to make sure he had the right timeframe to get something from his bedroom (he needed some paperclips)

Once he had the paperclips, he waited for Roman to start making food, and walked towards the living room’s tunnels and into the room-

Caught. Again, because why wouldn’t he be?

Roman reached out to grab him, but Virgil moved backwards slightly

“Don’t touch me,” He snapped, causing the hand to falter mid-air.

Roman looked down at him, with an almost confused expression

“Why not?” He asked

Virgil rolled his eyes and started listing reasons

“You’re big, clumsy, you break things all the time, you’ll probably accidentally hurt me..”

Roman seemed upset, in a way, but did respect Virgil’s space

“What’s your name?”

Virgil looked up at the human and mentally debated telling him his name. It had gone fine in the other timelines, but he was getting attached to the human. He said his name after a while of silence, Roman said his as well

He let out a soft smile.

Roman sat on the floor and just stared at him. Virgil sat down as well. It was almost the end of the day, it would reset soon.

“What are you? Are you some kind of fairy?” Roman asked quietly

Virgil snorted “Nope, nothing magical about me I’m afraid. As for what I am, if you find me again tomorrow, I might tell you,”

He knew that this wouldn’t be the end of the loop. Roman wouldn’t remember that promise, but Virgil would. And if the next loop wasn’t the end, then he’d tell Roman then (did tomorrow count as tomorrow if tomorrow was today again?)

Soon, they both went back to their respective bedrooms and fell asleep

When Virgil woke up, it was with a gasp. Loop 62. Virgil would’ve liked to say that he was the same as how he was when the loops started, and that he wasn’t getting increasingly attached to the dangerous human, but that would ultimately be a lie.

True to his word, he did tell Roman he was a borrower in loop 31.

Virgil had only got caught at the very end of the day yesterday, so he figured he could probably figure out how to avoid the human for the entire day this time.

He waited for the footsteps to go into and out of the kitchen, and he borrowed his necessities. He walked to the clock, and hung out there for a while. The first part of the avoidance was like second nature to him now

He left the clock after a while, retreating to the walls to watch Roman take apart the clock. Once Roman got bored with that, he went out to the garden. Virgil watched for a moment, before going to get paper clips. Roman started making food, Virgil waited for him to finish doing that, and stayed in the wall.

After a while, Roman started playing games on his computer. Virgil had gotten caught last time when he wanted a slightly closer look at the game (it was just a bunch of blocks?)

He stayed in the wall. Roman would be playing for hours, Virgil had only been caught at eleven o’clock in the evening, and Roman only noticed him as he was going to bed, so Virgil just had to stay in the walls until Roman went to sleep, right?

He watched the human on his block game for awhile, and then went to his house. He lied in his bed with his thoughts.

He had tried to stay awake in other loops, but he always fell asleep before midnight, like magic. He would wait for himself to either fall asleep or the clock to chime midnight

If the loop didn’t break this time, he didn’t know what he’d do. He’d evaded the human, he’d done what he needed, and if he was stuck waking up to the same day over and over, he wouldn’t let himself do anything

The clock chimed. He smiled. He went to sleep.

When Virgil woke up, it was to the sound of the human making breakfast. Virgil grinned, an uncharacteristic expression on his face. It was a new day.

Every time he went borrowing after that, he wondered just why that day was so hard to evade the human; he had been doing it for twenty years with no problems. He wondered why he wanted to be found again

He wondered why he missed talking to someone, or even just being close enough to someone to touch their face. He even missed being held, somewhat. It occurred to him that this was the only contact he had had with another person in years.

For the next few weeks, he was reckless in his borrowing. So what if he ‘accidentally’ left his hook on he kitchen counter, he had a spare, it didn’t matter. So what if he left a light on? The human probably wouldn’t notice...

He would never admit that he did these things on purpose, because he was doing things that shouldn’t be done. He shouldn’t let himself forget anything, but maybe, just maybe, he wanted Roman to find him.

Maybe, they could be friends? He hoped so.

---

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper

#Time loop #time loops #time travel #time magic #borrowers #borrower virgil #human roman #sanders side fic #roman sanders #giant roman #sanders sides story #sanders sides fic #sanders sides gt #sanders sides #sanders sides au #virgil sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #Janus Sanders

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ax3-e0ns · 1 year

Photo

Had a really neat Idea for borrower Virgil, where he actively fights off any bugs trying to infest the home he’s in.

my favorite detail is the black widow butt pack.

#Sanders Sides #Virgil Sanders #my art #my artwork #borrower au

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general-gt · 2 years

Text

G/tober Day 6- Jars

Warnings: Mild dehumanising behaviour. Let me know if I missed any

A continuation of day 3’s ‘Overgrown’ prompt, featuring sassy Virgil. The prompt comes from @aaytaro-gt’s prompt list.

When Virgil came to, he’d expected to be in his bed with afternoon light streaming through the window.

So why, when he looked around after his abrupt awakening, was he faced with a human?

It instantly set off every alarm bell in his mind and he yelped, wings fluttering in preparation to dart past the human. He didn’t get the chance when the lid of the box he was trapped in was slammed shut.

Virgil was then jostled around as the human, presumably, started moving.

After a long few minutes of being tossed from wall to wall inside his prison, he finally settled at the bottom as the box was set down upright. The lid opened and while Virgil was blinded by the sudden onslaught of light, a shadow fell over him and the human snatched him up.

The grip was like that of a scientist, firm in keeping his wings pinned as well as his arms. A thumb was wedged under his chin as if Virgil was going to bite like some animal.

He was dumped into a glass container, barely avoiding landing on his wings. Scrambling to his feet, he swayed unsteadily as the human lifted the oddly shaped bottle to his face, distorted through the glass. He briefly debated if it was worth a bent wing to try and fly out before he squashed the idea.

“What are you?” he asked and Virgil hissed in response, bearing his teeth in an obvious threat. While he could instinctually understand any human language, the warped form of English coming from the human was unusual to him. How long had he been locked away?

“There’s hardly need for that.” The human said and Virgil couldn’t feel more patronised if he tried. Being stuck in a human’s presence was more than enough reason to be angry. It was easier to be angry than scared.

“Maybe when you summon the manners to have a civil conversation without trapping the other involved, I’ll have the respect to treat you civilly in return,” Virgil spat, wings flaring in indignation. The audacity to expect civility when the human had been such a terrible host was laughable.

Surprisingly, a bashful expression came over the man’s face and he looked chastised at Virgil’s words. “Ah, apologies, I wasn’t quite sure how to go about this. I’ve never seen one of your species before: what are you?” he asked and Virgil furrowed his brow.

“The question should be what my name is, but since you seem to be skipping pleasantries, I’ll start. Who are you?” Virgil leaned back against the glass, aiming for an air of casualness while his hands fidgeted with the fabric of his tunic. So far he was fine, nothing had been done to him.

Red crept across the man’s face and again he averted his eyes, “My name’s Logan.” He mumbled, “And you are?”

“Virgil,” he introduced curtly. “Are you going to let me out or continue gaping?”

——

Yes, there is a reason Virgil speaks so formally. In this, he would’ve been a prince and begrudgingly he would’ve learned the proper manner.

#g/t #giant/tiny #g/tober #sanders sides g/t #borrower au #giant logan sanders #tiny virgil sanders #jars

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does-this-look-writing-to-you · 1 year

Text

Sick Day

words: 1138 universe: college au characters: Logan, Patton pairings: platonic Logicality (can be read as pre-romantic) warnings: illness a/n: wow! a sanders sides fic! i haven’t done one of these in, like, seven months! i’ve been hanging onto this idea for a long time. the idea came from a good friend of mine, and i’d actually written out the beginning months before i finished. i’d abandoned this idea for a while until a few weeks ago, when i realised my idea worked quite well for a short story assignment i had to do for my creative writing class. so, yes, i am submitting a piece of sanders sides fanfiction for a college class. my professor won’t notice, right? as a note, because the harry potter series is featured briefly in this fic, i want to make it very clear that i, as a trans person and as someone who isn’t stupid, do not support j.k. rowling one bit. i needed a book, and i didn’t feel like making one up.

In the fifteen years during which Logan Lawson had attended school, he never missed a single day due to a measly cold or stomach bug. After all, if he wanted to become an astronomer, he had to make sacrifices to continue on that path. He had been taught to tough it out; after all, there was always a chance that he could miss something important. And thanks to his persistence, he never had.

So when he woke up one morning and felt as if he was on fire, he hardly thought anything of it. He simply got out of bed and went about his normal routine. He dressed himself in a white collared shirt, a dark blue sweater, and a pair of khaki pants. He headed into the bathroom and glanced in the mirror, combing one hand through his hair in an attempt to make himself presentable. Satisfied, he wasted no time in washing his face and brushing his teeth, before coming into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. His roommate was already there, eating a bowl of cereal.

“Good morning, Logan!” he chirped.

“Hello, Patton.” Logan winced internally at how sick he sounded. I’m fine, he told himself. He took his thermos from the cabinet. Maybe he didn’t even notice.

But judging by the concern that crossed Patton’s face, he’d clearly noticed. “Are you okay? You don’t sound too good.”

“I’m fine,” Logan insisted, taking the pot of coffee out from under the coffee machine and pouring himself a cup. Unfortunately for him, he was overtaken with a coughing fit.

“You don’t sound fine,” he argued. “You sound like you’re sick.”

“So what?”

“So you should take today off, so you can recover. You’ll be miserable if you go to school.”

“I’ll be fine,” he told Patton. “I’ve gone to class sick plenty of times.”

He looked shocked. “That’s not healthy!”

“Well, I have to go to class. What if I miss an important lesson?”

“Then you can ask your professor or one of your classmates for the notes!” Patton pleaded desperately. “Logan, please. Your well-being comes first.”

He opened his mouth to refuse, but before he could even process it Patton had picked him up and was carrying him into his bedroom bridal-style. Logan struggled, but his roommate didn’t let go until they reached his bedroom. He set Logan down on the bed.

“I’m gonna need you to change into your pajamas,” Patton told him.

“My pajamas are dirty.” He had planned to do his laundry today after his classes.

“Then I’ll let you borrow some of mine.”

“Won’t they be too big for me?”

“It’s better than nothing. You wait right here.” Patton left the room, closing the door behind him.

As soon as his roommate left, Logan sprang to his feet. I have never missed a single day of class in my entire life, and I refuse to do so now.

He scrambled over to the window and thrust it open. He began to clamber through the half-open window. His head and torso fit through the gap well enough, but he began to rethink his plan as he felt his rear get stuck in the gap. He desperately wiggled his body in an attempt to move forward.

“Excuse me,” came a voice from behind him, and Logan felt his heart sink.

Curse my voluptuous posterior! He felt something tugging at his legs and just let himself go limp, utterly exhausted from his escape attempt. In no time, he was back inside and face to face with a very displeased-looking Patton.

“Logan, I’m trying to help you.”

“I know. I’m sorry I made you angry.”

“I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.” He sighed, pressing his fingers to his temples.

What a Dad thing to say. Only he isn’t my father. He’s my roommate. Why does he even care?

“I’m just trying to take care of you, Logan. Everyone gets sick sometimes. You can’t just tough it out. Sometimes, you just need to take a day to let yourself be vulnerable.”

“But…”

“No but’s. You’re going to stay here. And I’m going to stay with you all day.”

“You have class,” he objected.

“I can always ask for the notes, remember?”

“We aren’t friends. You have no reason to care whether I stay here or not.”

“Yes, I do.” Patton looked him in the eyes. “Maybe we’re not friends. Maybe we’ll never see each other again when we move out of this dorm. But friends or not, everyone deserves to rest when they’re sick.”

Logan didn’t respond. He simply grumbled in defeat, which seemed to satisfy his rather pushy roommate.

“I know you won’t. I’ll make sure of it. Here, I brought you some PJs.” He handed him a set of messily folded flannel pajamas that he’d set on the bed.

“You change into those. I’ll give you some privacy, but you’d better not try and leave again.”

He gave Logan a stern look and stepped outside the room, shutting the door and leaving him alone again. Big mistake. He moved toward the window as quietly as he could. He began to open it, intending to create a larger opening for himself to escape easier. However, he failed to take into account the whoosh sound it made when he opened it. Patton opened the door again, clearly disappointed.

“Again?”

“It was worth a shot.”

“It absolutely wasn’t.” He crossed the room and shut the window.

“I don’t wanna do this, but I’m gonna have to stay here while you change. I’ll look away, don’t worry.” He turned to face the wall.

“You really won’t leave me alone, will you?” Logan remarked as he undressed.

“Nope!”

He sighed and folded his clothes, setting them aside and putting on Patton’s pajamas. He had to admit, they were very comfortable. “You can turn around now.”

Patton faced him again, looking pleased. “Thank you! Now, you get into bed.”

Logan obeyed. He would never say it aloud, but he was utterly exhausted. He had never liked having to trudge through the day when he was sick; it only made him miserable. His escape attempts this morning had only drained him of energy, even faster than a full day of classes would.

Patton took the chair from Logan’s desk and pulled it up beside the bed. “Why don’t I read you something?”

“Why would you?”

“It’s what my mom used to do when I was sick. You can pick the book.”

“Alright. First book of Harry Potter?”

“Sure!” He took the book off the shelf and sat down, beginning to read. The more he read, the more Logan started to feel his eyelids grow heavy. Before long, he let them flicker shut. Maybe, he thought, as he began to drift off to sleep, it’s alright to let myself rest.

#sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #ts logan #ts patton #logicality #platonic logicality #pre-romantic logicality #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfic #sanders sides fanfiction #logicality fic #logicality fanfic #logicality fanfiction

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milkhoney531 · 6 months

Text

Alright. Did some plot work, mainly organizing and figuring out character details, character relationships, and some actual plot points for my nanowrimo project, a Sanders Sides Borrower au fanfiction I'll be posting to ao3 called Stolen? Borrowed? Same Thing. Also added more songs to the spotify playlist.

#sanders sides #borrowers #sanders sides fic #ao3 #nanowrimo

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lambourngb · 2 years

Text

wip wednesday

ringmaker! michael/ jewelry maker AU just hit 34,000 words this morning. 5 more scenes to go.

****

The morning slipped away from him, as he experimented in bringing his drawings to life in a real application. In one kiln, he prepared tungsten to pour into a setting, and in another, the furnace superheated the softer white gold. There were pure lumps of silver from his last couriered delivery waiting in the wings to be used.

At some point, Michael became aware that Walt was in the store with coffee in hand. He could feel the other man’s gaze on his back as he consumed nearly 90 percent of their recent material resupply in various rings, all of them masculine bands. “Don’t start, okay?”

“Did you hear me say a word, kid?”

“I can hear your thinking about the shop inventory and resupply orders.”

“Uh huh, you better not be hearin’ that. I know you have better manners.”

Michael looked up in his magnifying glasses from his work in soft gold. Walt was a fun house mirror silhouette before him through the powerful lenses. “I’m just working some things out in my head, productively. I promise in the end, this will all be something saleable, okay?” He dropped his attention back down to the warmth of the hot metal and then touched his finger against it, leaving his fingerprint behind. Retrieving his knife from the furnace, he applied the tip to the gold, gently working a swirl into the round side of the ring before returning to the task of drawing a faint map.

“Uh huh,” Walt grunted dubiously again, and then nodded toward the thin lines of alien glass that were waiting in a stand, ready to be embedded in the ring’s shank. “Somehow I doubt you’re gonna sell that project.”

He ignored the ribbing, and gestured toward the shop, “I think I hear a customer.”

Even though it was Michael’s turn to work a shift on the floor of the shop and wait on the foot traffic of tourists, Walt rolled his eyes and left him alone in the back without an argument. Walt Sanders was a man who had known him since he was an angry eleven year old with a bag full of discarded soup cans and glass milk bottles, all for sale so he could buy enough food to survive the lessons in Christian submissiveness. He knew every shade of defensiveness Michael could muster, but it was clear his misery could probably be seen from orbit and that had earned him some kindness from the other man.

Walt was also annoyingly right.

The last ring was not for sale.

He had carefully crafted a minuscule world map, leaving behind the whorls of his own fingerprint over it, and then the last step was placing the delicate strip of alien glass in the shank, the band of metal that fit around the finger. While he had mastered the technique of making his own programmable glass using turquoise and heat, this piece had been carefully harvested from the first piece of the crashed ship he had found at the Foster’s Homestead Ranch.

After enduring a terrifying lecture about sin and sinners, Sodom and Gomorrah in particular, he had run away after the fundamentalist family had gone to bed, using a borrowed bicycle. In the black of night he had peddled toward the last place his life had made sense. With the howls of lonely coyotes in his ears, he had found the small piece in the dirt by his foot, after tripping and falling to the ground. The luckiest accident. It had felt like a promise of something better, and then he had met Alex the next day in middle school. Fitting.

The inside of the band bore a simple inscription, one word, home.

#wip wednesday #malex fc #malex wip #rnm #jewelry maker au #michael guerin guerilla jewelry maker

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edupunkn00b · 11 months

Note

For the fandom ask game-

B, D, J, O, Q, and Z :D

Thank you so much for the Ask, Logan!! I've answered B and D elsewhere, so I swapped in N.

N - Name Three Things You Want More Of

Roman and Remus sharing a room. In canonverse, in AUs, I want it all. I want these brothers to bicker and help the other back to sleep after a nightmare and borrow clothes without asking and get each other ready for prom or tests or big interviews. They need each other and I just adore Creativitwins.

The Sides as 'actors' improving and making the videos together. Remus and Logan brainstorming ideas for WTIT. Roman and Janus tentatively apologizing to the other, each thinking he was the one who'd gone too far. Virgil slowly acclimating Patton to spiders so he won't be afraid of the set any more…

I want more of Remus reading.

J - A Fandom I Didn't Know About Before Tumblr

There are so many, I'm not even sure where to begin. Our Flag Means Death and Good Omens comes to mind first. Coming to Tumblr was like the first time I went to a Star Trek convention.

Oh! There are more of us!

O - Random Song and Which Character

This song reminds me of Logan Sanders in my own little Happily Ever After universe.

Q - A Ship I've Abandoned And Why

I used to ship Deanna and Worf (Star Trek, TNG, DS9, Picard) hard. And then Worf met Dax and it was all over for me. Deanna and Worf were transitional for each of them. (And then Star Trek had to go and rip my heart out with Deanna and Riker's storyline in Picard and I still haven't gotten over that.)

Z - Ramble about a Fandom thing

This probably won't make it into a story, so here's a little bit more bickering and supportive Creativitwins. Human AU. Roman and Remus are talking about a guy Roman likes. Roman's a big star. (cw: suggestive)

"So, little bro," Remus hitched himself up onto the counter next to the sink. "You wanna make a move on him? Bed's gettin' a little… lonely?"

"It's not that," he muttered, avoiding Remus' little eyebrow raise. "Okay, fine. It's not only that."

Remus just smirks.

Roman rolls his eyes and turns away, slowly drying the next dish. "Why do I bother talking to you about this?"

"Who else you gonna talk to?" he shrugged and swiped the dry dish from his brother's hand. "Your publicist?"

"I have friends beside you, you know," Roman huffed.

"Friends who wouldn't sell this story to TMZ?"

Roman went quiet and handed his brother the next dish to put away. "Maybe not."

"Besides," Remus waggled his eyebrows. "You trust my advice."

"You just tell me I need to get laid."

"Well?" Remus smirked again. "Don't you?"

#ask game #come at me friend #fandom meme

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warcats-cat · 1 year

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out of the total 5, wip number 4

👀🎬💡🪞

If I number them 1 - 5 with 1 being most recent, number 4 is the next post-able chapter of Visibility, so,,,,

🎬 - What is the source material and what is appealing about it?

Sanders Sides! I think Sanders Sides is always going to be special to me because this fandom is where I really discovered/developed my love of writing. My first fanfic and most of the early ones were ways for me to process whatever was going on at the time. I remember Accident, especially, because I was so worked up for so long after my car crash, and my therapist suggested I try writing about it, but putting *myself* back in the situation mentally was so much worse. So I used Patton as a stand-in, so I could process it more as an observer. And from there, I started making my own stories and now entirely my own worlds, just featuring the characters I love 😍

Plus, Sanders Sides is just so open. The set-up is flexible in a way I didn't really have with Good Omens? I don't know how to describe the difference. I can see a lot of different aus working in TS, where as I tended to avoid aus in GO because they never felt *right*

💡 - What inspired you to want to write it?

I LOVE fairies, if that wasn't already obvious 😅 and as much as I love high fantasy aus (see Long Road Home) and traditional Fair Folk, I grew up on stories about the little fairies that lived in the woods. The ones that really just wanted to be left alone, like wild bee colonies, but would be polite and maybe even make friends if you were respectful/nice enough.

I spent a lot of time growing up with my grandparents, who would both read stories about the little fairies. My grandpa would take me to the nature center and we would go on fairy walks, looking for signs of little friends.

So I wanted to take those memories and apply them to my sort-of newfound passion; and since I wear glasses, for some reason, I started wondering what would happen if like,, aliens found them and had no idea what they were. Or fairies. And here we are lol.

🪞 - Can you cite any examples of the style you're going for?

Uuhhh I'm kind of going for a mix between children's book and whatever people would call my usual style, I guess 😅😅 I want it to be light-hearted and silly; Logan and his excitement and the "mystery" being at the forefront. It's technically LAMP but I'm not trying to focus on the romance. I'm trying to focus on the way they work together in general, how they support each other.

Someone said it reminded them of the Borrowers series, which is funny because I'd never even heard of the Borrowers series until I joined the Sanders Sides fandom for the first time in 2018 lol.

👀 - Can you give us a sneak peek?

As I’m readong over chapter five, I’m realizing its very short and nothing really happens, but this passage is really cute:

A scavenger group managed to come back one late evening, dragging an almost-whole glass bottle of some kind, and the lucky find was portioned out among the crafts-fairies, with a significant portion going to Logan’s work.

It was a thrilling feeling, to realize this was something more than him, more even than within the court. This was something that (hopefully) the whole colony could really benefit from. Maybe even some of their neighboring colonies, if they were open to trade. And things were finally going well.

After almost two months of research, the summer was bleeding into autumn, and they finally had enough pieces to test their first enchantment.

#warcats answers #a new friend appears #hello new friend!#ask games #wip asks #theres so many wips that I've just abandoned at this point #those will not be included in these asks lol

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dillydallydove · 1 year

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I missed drawing these guys

#sanders sides #g/t au #virgil sanders #roman sanders #prinxiety #platonic prinxiety #borrower!virgil #fairy!roman #I adore brotherly prinxiety in this au #100% would fight eachother unprompted #100% would literally die for eachother

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ashs-random-writing · 2 years

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The Problem With Cameras

~~~~~

Roman didn't know much about human technology. In fact, up until about a month ago, he was an outside living borrower. When the weather shifted to the worst it got in that area, he couldn’t find any suitable shelter barring the human house that resided in the midst of hundreds, maybe even thousands of trees.

Aka, Roman makes a dumb mistake because he doesn't know what cameras are

~~~~~~

Roman didn’t know much about human technology. In fact, up until about a month ago, he was an outside living borrower. When the weather shifted to the worst it got in that area, he couldn’t find any suitable shelter barring the human house that resided in the midst of hundreds, maybe even thousands of trees.

Reluctantly, he searched for a potential entrance, which he luckily found in under five minutes, before entering the walls. He loved the warmth of the house, and quickly started learning the layout of the tunnels, and silently thanking the air that borrowers had evidently lived here before.

He had learned some things from other borrowers, during his travels. Mostly families that were moving from one set of walls to another, and while adults were giving warnings about if he was to ever live in a house, Roman was entertaining children with stories, both of his life and those of dragons and princes. He would offer the families extra supplies and shelter from wherever he lived when he met them.

Nothing could beat the thrill of telling someone stories, or reading things aloud or giving your opinion, even if it was to no one, perhaps to yourself even. So when he heard the human start to talk when no one else was in the house, he couldn’t help but watch.

Perhaps the human was a storyteller and was practicing for when he would show other humans’? The borrower sat on a shelf that was out of the human’s sight, and listened to the human speak. The human was looking into a weird device, and seemingly just talking to it, as if it were multiple people, all but solidifying the idea that he were practicing for something.

The things the human were talking about confused him, however. Half of what was being said sounded like gibberish but Roman supposed that it must make sense to the human, even if he, himself, could not understand what he was talking about.

Roman actually found it all quite intriguing, in the four weeks of secretly living the human, he’d only been left alone in the house a total of twice, when the human left to buy food. So if the human rarely left the house, what was he practicing for? Roman didn’t know, honestly, but he really didn’t know much about humans.

After a while of watching the human, he retreated back into the walls

Virgil posted his new Youtube video, and sighed, preparing for random hate comments, or people trying to get famous by claiming they know him. He went to go make food whilst waiting for his subscribers to watch the video. He wasn’t expecting to see all the comments complimenting him on the editing of something he didn’t add.

He re-watched the video, this time focusing on the spot the comments were pointing out, aka the top shelf of his bookshelf, where apparently a tiny person would appear about five minutes in. His breath hitched in a gasp when he saw it, sat there just watching him. That was kind of weird, he thought

Why wasn’t he aware of the tiny person living in his house? He watched until the tiny person left, and Virgil noticed the tiny doorway that opened up. He walked towards the shelf in question, and finally noticed the small imprint of a doorway in the wood.

Over the next week, he noticed more things, like tiny footprints in dust, or some of his food disappearing, or just where he noticed door-like shapes in the walls. At least two were in the kitchen, which kinda made sense?

The little guy probably needed food.. He decided to try capture it, wanting to hopefully get answers, or maybe get it to be in the background of more videos. This was the video with the least amount of hate comments so far, just because of the tiny person sat on a bookshelf, swinging its legs

Roman entered the kitchen, and his eyes immediately fell upon the seemingly abandoned bag of popcorn. Roman supposed the human wouldn’t notice if just one piece went missing, right? He took a step forward, not bothering to look at the ground beneath him.

That was a mistake. He felt his steps stop and looked down at what he had assumed was the ground, only to see a glue trap like those to catch mice. He cursed himself for not using the other entrance, but a quick look towards that area showed that he would’ve gotten himself trapped there as well.

For them to have been placed so perfectly, the human must’ve known what he was doing, and what he was catching. Roman’s breathing got quicker, and he struggled, trying to pry his feet from the stickiness of the makeshift floor before the human would inevitably come for his food, and for Roman.

He both heard and felt the human’s footsteps, getting closer as he was failing to escape. The kitchen door opened and the human stepped inside, making his way towards where Roman was still trying to escape

“Holy shit, that actually worked.. I didn’t think that would work” The human’s booming voice startled him out of staring

“Let me go, Fiend!” He shouted, hoping his voice didn’t reflect the amount of pure fear he was experiencing. The human merely raised an eyebrow

“Jeez, little guy, I just want answers about why you’re in my house, no need to scream at me” The sentence was punctuated with an eye roll, and Roman glared

“How did you even know I existed? I have been really well hidden” Roman glared up at the human, and crossed his arms

A chuckle escaped from the human’s lips “Well hidden? Are you sure?” He pulled out the weird rectangle that humans always had and showed Roman a picture of the borrower sat on a shelf

“How-how did you get this?” His voice was shaky, and he tried to think of what he could’ve done to make his face appear on the human rectangle things. Maybe he should’ve stayed outside like he was taught, where he belonged.

~~~~~

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper

#borrower roman #sanders sides fic #sanders sides au #sanders sides gt #sanders sides #sanders sides g/t #virgil sanders sides #sanders sides story #thomas sanders sides #borrowers #infinitesimal sides #giant Virgil #tiny Roman #human virgil

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