#sdklsd can't believe i finally finished writing this

[kinderes]

for forever

Summary: Virgil and Roman decide to have a sibling-free day. Warnings for very brief non-descript injuries, mentions of almost falling / being pushed out of a tree

Word count: 2285

Author’s note: part three of the boys will be bugs au! oops I started writing this almost exactly a year ago, but now that I’m done w/ my ts big bang project I really wanted to get back into this au! 

Virgil was ten years old and not in a great mood when someone tapped on his bedroom window. He groaned and considered ignoring it when there was another, more insistent tap on the window.

“Psst! Virgil! Are you home?” 

Virgil immediately recognised it as Roman’s voice. He drew open the purple curtains covering the window before pushing up the glass and glaring at Roman. “Hey Princey, you know most people just use the front door, right?” 

Roman hoisted himself up onto Virgil’s windowsill and climbed into his room. “That’s exactly what he would expect!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Hiding from Remus?”

At the mention of Remus, Roman let out a loud cry of frustration. “Ugh! You’re lucky you only have to deal with him at school! You have no idea what it’s like to live with such a loud, annoying, obnoxious-”

As if on queue, Virgil’s older brother Remy burst through the door, talking to someone on his phone. “Yeah girl, just gimme a sec,” Remy said, before pressing his phone to his chest and addressing Virgil. “Hey Virge, I’m gonna need you to keep it down in here, I’m trying to talk to Steph ‘cause her boyfriend’s being a real-” Remy stopped, apparently finally noticing that Roman was there. “Oh, is this one of your friends? Kinda thought you were lying about having them, but it’s nice to know you’re not a complete loner. Anyway,” Remy left the room again, leaving Virgil’s door wide open as he continued talking on his phone. 

“Remy don’t leave the door- ugh!” Virgil moved over to shut the door, sliding against it as it shut. “You know what, Ro? I kinda feel like having a brother-free day too, got any place we can go?”

Roman’s face lit up. “You know what, I just might!”

Virgil followed Roman as they both climbed out Virgil’s bedroom window. As they walked, Roman vented his frustrations about his brother. 

“...and he always makes such a mess, which he always blames me for and then I have to help him clean it up! And he always kicks my mattress when I’m trying to sleep! Honestly, I’d switch bunks if the top bunk didn’t give me the high ground.” Roman huffed, then turned to grin at Virgil. “And that’s why I’m adopting you as my new twin brother!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think it works like that. For one thing, we look nothing alike.” 

Roman waved a flippant hand. “We can fix that! We’ll just dye your hair brown, problem solved!”

“Hair colour isn’t the only difference, Princey.” Virgil sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Besides, Dad says I have to be at least a rebellious teenager before I can dye my hair.” Plus we can’t afford it, Virgil added silently, but kept that thought to himself. 

“Well, we’ll have to wait a few years for you to be a teenager, but we can work on the rebellious part! Remus can teach you how to-” Roman paused, catching his mistake. “Wait, no, I’m disowning Remus… guess I’ll have to do it!” 

Virgil snorted. “Yeah, because you’re just as rebellious as Remus is.”

“I am!” Roman protested. “I get in trouble almost as much as he does!”

“Not sure that’s something to aim for, Ro.”

Roman hummed. “Hmm, perhaps you’re right. Ah!” He stopped dead in his tracks, almost causing Virgil to bump into him. “Here we are!”

Roman had led him and Virgil through the suburban streets and down a small wooded track as they had been talking, and they were now standing at the base of a tall tree with a wooden structure wedged between its branches. 

Virgil looked up at it. “A treehouse?”

“A tree castle, actually!” Roman said proudly. “Look, it has a balcony and everything!” He began climbing up the ladder. “Our uncle built it for us last summer, so we hang out here all the time. Of course, Remus won’t be allowed up here anymore but you can still come here!” 

Virgil frowned. “Won’t he be mad at us?”

“Probably!” Roman said cheerfully as he climbed up the last rung and into the treehouse. “You coming?”

Virgil looked at the ladder, then up at Roman. “Y-yeah, hold on.” He slowly began climbing up the ladder after Roman, and was almost to the top before he made the mistake of looking down and a worried noise escaped from his throat.

“Virgil?” Virgil heard Roman’s voice from above him. “Virge, you’re almost up!” 

Virgil looked back up at Roman, and Roman extended his hand towards him. With a shaky breath, Virgil took it and was pulled up beside him.

“So… don’t like heights, huh?” Roman nudged him gently, but even that made Virgil grip tighter to the side railings of the treehouse. 

Virgil tried and failed desperately to not look at the ground. “Yeah, and I uh… I don’t think I can get down.”

Roman hummed in thought. “That could be a problem… or you could just live up here!” He led Virgil further back into the treehouse, where there were two chairs and a couple of random toys scattered about. “I could bring you some blankets and food, and you can take care of the castle while Remus and I aren’t here!”

Virgil sat down on one of the chairs and grimaced. “Yeah, no thanks.”

They hung and talked with each other for a while. After about half an hour, they heard the sound of someone climbing up the ladder behind them, and Remus popped his head up. “Found you!”

“No! You’re not allowed up here Remus, I’ve disowned you!” Roman protested.

Remus climbed up and into the treehouse anyway. “I thought I disowned you last week?” 

“You did, but you took it back in exchange for you being able to use my Switch for the week! Which you then dropped and then mum had to get it fixed, which is one of many reasons why I’m disowning you! And-” he put an arm around Virgil, “Virge’s my new brother!”

Remus let out an offended huff. “That’s not fair! It was an accident, and how come Virgil gets to be your brother?”

“Because I saw him first! Now get out!”

Remus grinned and crossed his arms. “What are you gonna do, push me out? Make me go splat on the ground?”

Roman’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Ew, no! If you’re not going to get out, then I guess we’ll just leave!” He made a move towards the treehouse’s entrance, but Remus blocked him. “Remus, move!”

Remus grinned wider. “Make me!”

Roman groaned, looking around the treehouse for another exit. His eyes settled on one of the small windows and his face lit up. Without another word, he dashed towards it and started to climb out of it and onto one of the branches supporting the treehouse. Remus and Virgil both rushed to the window and watched as he climbed higher up into the tree.

“You can’t get out that way, you dork!” Remus called after him. Roman looked down at him and stuck his tongue out. Remus returned the favour. 

“He’s getting pretty high up,” Virgil said to Remus nervously. He wasn’t sure if the higher branches looked stable enough to support Roman’s weight. “Hey Roman, you can come down now!”

“Nah, keep going!” Remus called up to his brother. “See how high you can go!” He looked over and saw Virgil’s worried look. “Relax, he’s not gonna fall.”

“Challenge accepted!” Roman yelled back, quickening his pace as he neared the very top of the tree. One of the branches he tried to step on cracked as he put his weight on it. Roman yelped and grabbed onto the branch above him, just as the branch he’d just stepped on broke off and fell down onto the roof of the treehouse. Without much of a foothold left, he clung to the branch and tried to swing his leg up onto it. He looked down at Remus and Virgil, and for the first time looked about as nervous as Virgil felt.

“Okay, so he might fall!” Remus said. His tone was light, but his eyes were wide with panic as he stared up at his brother. 

“R-Remus!” Roman called down, his voice shaking. “I’m stuck, go get Mum!” 

“Yeah, okay!” Remus called back. He looked at Virgil and shrugged. “Not much you can do so just watch him and keep talking to him. Make sure he doesn’t freak out too much!”

Virgil nodded and kept looking up at Roman as Remus rushed out of the treehouse. He heard a whimper escape Roman’s lips.

“Y-you still there, Virgil?!” He said, sounding increasingly more panicked.

“Yeah!” Virgil replied, feeling helpless. “Just hang on, okay?”

“I don’t have much of a choice!” Roman snapped. He readjusted his grip and tried once more to pull himself up with little success.

Virgil looked back towards the ground, checking to see if Remus had come back. He hadn’t of course, since it had only been a few minutes and their house was at least ten minutes walk from the treehouse. Virgil watched as Roman struggled and was beginning to feel like they didn’t have that sort of time. 

Virgil took a deep breath and climbed out of the window and onto the tree branch. His mouth felt dry as he tried not to look down. He began a slow ascent up towards where Roman was, watching the whole time as Roman kept trying and failing to climb up onto the branch he was hanging off of. His grip was shaky at best and the whole time he thought he was going to fall, but soon he was only a few branches below. He took a break for the moment, sitting down and straddling the sturdy branch he was on so he could feel steady even for just a short while. 

Roman heard him and glanced down at him. “What are you doing?!” Roman hissed. “We don’t need two of us stuck in a tree!”

Virgil could see Roman’s arms were starting to shake from holding on. “Dude, you’re gonna fall!”

“No I’m not!” Roman shook his head, but it caused his grip to slip further. He panicked and squeezed his eyes shut as he completely lost hold of the branch and started to fall. 

Virgil realised what was happening and, wrapping his legs tighter around the branch so he wouldn’t slip, reached out his arms in an attempt to grab Roman. He was almost sure Roman was too far away to reach until he blinked and registered that he was holding onto Roman’s arm. Roman, who was now dangling beneath him, opened his eyes and looked up. Virgil could feel his grip wasn’t going to be strong enough with just one arm, so he reached out his other hand towards Roman. Roman used the last of his strength to pull himself up far enough to take it, and Virgil pulled him up onto the branch beside him.

Once they were both sitting opposite each other, they took a second to catch their breaths. Roman huffed. “Well now what?”

Virgil’s heart was pounding in his ears. “You’re an idiot,” he mumbled. 

Roman looked like he was about to say something in response, but just then they heard shouting below them. He peered down to the ground. “Mum?!”

Roman’s mum was standing at the bottom of the tree, carrying a tall ladder under her arm. Remus was standing beside her, waving up at the two of them. It didn’t take long until Virgil and Roman were safely back on the ground.

Mrs Duke pulled Roman into a hug and kissed him on the top of his head. “You are grounded, mister! What on earth were you thinking?!” 

“Remus was chasing me!” Roman defended himself weakly. 

“You aren’t hurt, are you?” Mrs Duke checked Roman over and found a scratch along his left arm. She tutted. “Well, it could be worse.” She turned to look at Virgil. “Are you okay too, Virgil? Didn’t expect you to be up there with him!”

Virgil ducked his head, embarrassed. “Yeah, ‘m fine.”

“It was my fault!” Roman blurted out. “I was… scared, so Virgil followed me up there. He doesn’t even like heights!” He glanced over at Virgil and smiled. “It was pretty brave of him, Mum.”

Virgil could tell Roman was purposefully leaving out the part where he’d almost plummeted from the top of the tree to avoid getting into more trouble, but the compliment still made his cheeks flush. “It’s fine, no big deal.”

“Well, I think my son’s very lucky to have a friend like you,” Mrs Duke said, smiling. Virgil couldn’t help but smile back. “Now come on boys, I think that’s enough excitement for one day.” She picked up the ladder and tucked it back over her arm.

Roman gave Virgil a quick hug before he left. “Seriously, thank you Virge,” he said quietly as he hugged Virgil. “I’m glad you were there with me.”

Virgil patted him on the back and pulled away. “Yeah. See you around?

“Of course!” Roman said, but his smile faded into a grimace as he remembered he’d been grounded. “Though maybe not that soon.”

“You’ll still see me around!” Remus said, giving Virgil a strong nudge that almost made him lose his balance. “I’m not grounded! That’s weird, Roman’s grounded and I’m not!”

Virgil snorted. “Yeah, that’s not gonna last long.”

“Oh, I guarantee it!” Remus said, apparently already having planned something that would eventually get him grounded as well. “See ya, Virge!” Virgil waved goodbye and watched as the two twins and their mum headed home.

au taglist: @nikoipond @sunflowerss0 @sparrow-flightninggale @nye275 @thgjclw  @jellopuffs @kai-the-person @fandoms-will-collide (let me know if you wanna be added or removed from the taglist!! c: I can’t promise I’ll keep it going, but I’ll try to for at least the first couple of chapters!)