#and Virgil won’t be too thrilled about the Logan thing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

a-small-batch-of-dragons · 3 years

Text

Not So Serious

Prompt: ayoooo I’m like-obsessed with your writing style omg if your requests are open I’d love to see some good good logince hurt/comfort where Roman has a crush on Logan and gets this idea that he’s not serious enough for Logan to like him at all so Roman completely changes himself only for Logan to wonder where the man he’s in love with went.

Thanks for the prompt, babe!

Read on Ao3

Pairings: logince, as on the tin

Warnings: roman’s a little bit of a self-doubting and self-depricating boi but other than that none! we are happy now!

Word Count: 5340

Roman knows he’s the least important of the Light Sides. Or at the very least, the one that Thomas listens to the least.

That’s okay.

It’s not, not really, but that doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that most of it can be chalked up to the fact that he’s the least serious Side. He’s the dreamer, the fanatic, the one whose head is permanently in the clouds. He sings, he dances, he acts, he plays. And that’s his job! He’s Creativity, for Shakespeare’s sake, and if he’s not, well, what good is he?

Well, he’s not much good when he is Creativity, but that’s beside the point.

But Thomas needs him to be serious. Patton, for all his lightheartedness, knows how to be serious when the time calls for it. And behind all those jokes and smiles and corny lines that make all of them want to cringe a little, he’s talking about, arguably, the most serious thing there is. What’s right and what’s wrong. No matter how you slice it, that’s serious. And he’s Thomas’s heart! How can you not take that seriously?

Then there’s Virgil, who Roman considers a Light Side. Virgil demands to be taken seriously. Not verbally, but come on, he’s Anxiety. Mental stuff is no joke, and they’ve had enough close calls to know that for sure. Virgil’s a snarky bastard, but he rarely says something he doesn’t actually mean. He keeps them safe when none of the others know what to do and honestly? That’s serious stuff. Virgil’s got enough on his plate.

Then there’s Logan.

Logan.

Roman could go on for days about Logan. He won’t, but he could.

Logan is Logic. Perhaps more than anything else, Thomas needs Logic. And Logan. Logan is always present, whether he’s there physically or not, and his voice is always going to be heard in the conversation sooner or later. He breaks down the biggest problems Roman’s ever seen until they’re manageable chunks, so much so that it’s ridiculous that they were ever big in the first place. He talks them through everything, slowly and surely. He makes everything look easy.

And that’s all the more impressive because Roman knows it’s not.

It’s not easy to do what Logan does. It’s not easy for Logan to always make himself heard. It’s not easy to carry the single brain cell in any given conversation.

But he does and it’s wonderful.

Logan is serious. His job is serious. That doesn’t mean he’s serious all the time, no, Roman’s seen him snap a quip faster than anything with a smirk on his face, and their bond over Crofter’s is legendary. And he knows the gleam that means Logan is immensely satisfied with whatever insult he’s come up with to shut Roman down. Even through the hurt of a new bruise forming on Thomas’s ego, he has to smile because it’s so satisfying to watch someone just be very good at something.

He’s also incredible at calming them all down. He’s so sweet and kind and gentle in all the right ways and you will never convince Roman that Logan knows nothing about emotions. Come on, he’s the most intelligent Side, that extends to emotional intelligence too. The amount of times he’s been able to rip them out of some horrible spiral with just a simple touch or a word is too high for Roman to count. And he never asks for anything, he just does it. Because he’s good like that.

Roman would be an utter, utter fool if he didn’t take Logan seriously. He doesn’t dare underestimate him, never again, not after that rap battle. He doesn’t try to speak over him, not once everyone’s actually paying attention and Logan’s clearly trying to say something. He listens, he tries, he takes him seriously.

But sometimes Logan needs to not be serious! He can see when the strain gets a little too much and he needs to cut someone down to size.

Well, here’s Roman!

And yes, it’s worth it. It’s always worth it. Logan smiles and it’s like the sun comes out. Yes, that’s a cliché but we all know clichés are cliché for a reason. Logan smiles, the sun comes out, and Roman wants to bathe in it. Wants to sit and listen to Logan talk about anything just so he’ll keep smiling, keep talking, keep being Logan. Logan is serious, but serious isn’t always Logan.

Isn’t always.

Most of the time, though…

Most of the time, it looks like Logan is thrilled to not have to stand next to Roman.

Most of the time, it seems like every time Roman opens his mouth, Logan’s trying not to roll his eyes or is just listening out of politeness. And every time he pitches an idea, it seems like Logan’s getting just as much enjoyment out of leaving the meetings as he does when he doesn’t find anything wrong with it.

Most of the time, that 0.5% hangs in the air between them like a moat.

Roman doesn’t want that. Roman doesn’t want Logan to view him as a diametrically opposed foe, he doesn’t want to be Logan’s other side of the coin, he doesn’t want Logan to think he’s only worth 0.5% of a day.

But 0.5% is all he gets if he stays Roman.

It’s not big changes, nothing that would compromise Thomas, but they’re noticeable. At least he hopes so.

He stops singing out loud in the common areas and instead has a headphone in when he wants to listen to something. He reads in the chair—sitting properly, not with his limbs haphazardly thrown about like he’s a newly made life form with no idea how muscles work—and keeps his comments to himself, written down in a notebook or in his head. He asks politely if Logan wants to come on a walk through the Imagination and conjures up something simple. A forest path, or a garden, or a small town road. None of the fantastical woods, magic castles, or treacherous mountains that he’s so fond of, because those are daydreams.

He’s quieter outside of videos. Sure, he’s still as obnoxious as ever when the cameras are on, but they tend to exaggerate themselves when they’re being filmed anyway. So it won’t be too much of a surprise when he’s not like that when the cameras are off. He doesn’t speak as much—well, he doesn’t monologue as much. He speaks when spoken to, he’s as courteous as he knows how to be, and he tries to be serious. Even if his job is anything but.

He could tell you it’s exhausting what he does for the videos and he’d rather not do it when he doesn’t have to.

He could tell you it’s because it would be better for Thomas if they all got along well.

He could tell you it’s because he wants a healthier and more productive working relationship with Logan.

He could tell you all of these things.

Whether or not you believe him is up to you.

…because Roman might be the actor, but he’s never been a particularly good liar. And deep down—not that deep down—we all know why he wants to be more serious, don’t we?

Logan doesn’t like fantasy. Logan doesn’t like excessive noise. Logan doesn’t like someone who can’t be serious.

Logan is kind and perfect and wonderful and smart and so many things.

And above all, Logan is serious.

Roman can work with that.

———————————————————————

“Hey, Specs! Do you have time to brainstorm?”

“It will have to be quick, Roman, I’ve not much time to spare.”

“Oh. That’s alright, then, we can do it later.”

“Are you certain?”

“Of course! I know how important your schedule is for you, please, don’t worry about it.”

“Ah. I see. Well, thank you, Roman.”

They never do end up having that brainstorm. Not alone.

“Logan?”

“Yes, Roman?”

“Would it be alright if I played music? I’ll keep it low.”

“…we can try, though I usually prefer working in silence.”

“Oh, in that case, I’ll just go—“

“Let’s try?”

“If you’re sure.”

Roman ends up getting his headphones after a few minutes.

“Roman?”

“Yes, my d—Logan?”

“…were you going to say something else?”

“No, no, I got lost in my head again, I thought you were…someone else.”

“It may be worth practicing getting out of your head, Roman.”

“I know.”

He never quite manages, but he’s trying.

“Ro—oh.”

“Logan? Is something wrong?”

“You’ve changed your room. Your…your paintings, your drawings, they’re…where did you put them?”

“Oh, I got rid of them.”

“Got rid of them?”

“Yes. Surely you know how difficult it can be to work in a crowded space?”

“…yes, I suppose I do.”

Logan doesn’t comment on the fact that Roman’s room isn’t quite so red anymore either.

“Roman?”

“Yes?”

“This idea, it seems…quite…realistic.”

“Is that not the point, Sp—Logan?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so.”

“Besides, from a practical standpoint, we’re operating with a limited budget here. The scope of the videos has to be adjusted accordingly.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re correct.”

Logan doesn’t mention that it doesn’t necessarily feel like Roman’s idea.

“Roman?”

“Yes?”

“Care to comment?”

“Oh, no, I’m perfectly content.”

“Are you certain?”

“Of course.”

Logan doesn’t ask again.

———————————————————————

Logan is really confused.

Something’s wrong with Roman, that much is obvious, but he can’t figure out what. Roman’s been quiet lately, outside of the videos, but even in the videos, he’s been different. He’s not talking as much anymore, not going on his incredibly passionate rants that one can feel if they just listen hard enough. He’s not risen to the bait for weeks now, preferring instead to…talk. Or listen. His room is suspiciously absent of his paintings and drawings that make Logan want to sit and stare and lose track of time.

And he’s stopped singing.

That’s a definite indicator that something’s wrong.

But he can’t figure out what.

None of them are fighting; Patton and Virgil have noticed that something is different, certainly, but they don’t know—they can’t figure out exactly what. They would have told him if they had a disagreement with Roman, but they haven’t.

Thomas isn’t being affected by it. In fact, he hasn’t noticed that anything’s wrong.

And on the surface, Roman seems fine, but Logan knows better.

He stops in front of his whiteboard, staring hard at the pieces of information he has written down.

Roman is no longer singing or playing music out loud outside of his room.

Roman is changing the ideas that he brings to the brainstorming sessions. He claims they are meant to be more ‘practical’ and easier to budget.

Roman does not insist that we spend time with him anymore.

Roman is quiet and no longer engages in ‘banter’ exchanges with me.

Roman no longer brings me to the elaborate places in the Imagination.

Roman no longer gives me nicknames.

Has…has Logan done something to Roman?

He doesn’t think he has. He hasn’t—he hasn’t shot down any ideas lately, and certainly none so much as to trigger such a drastic change. There have been no arguments. There have been no big changes for Thomas.

He finds himself twisting the cap of the marker back and forth as he focuses on the period at the end of the last sentence written. Perhaps…perhaps Roman is simply going through a rough patch? Occasionally the prince will lapse into a ‘grayer’ state, for lack of a better term, where he exhibits fewer of his energetic tendencies, but none have gone on for such a duration. Additionally, his behavior in videos has not altered as significantly as would indicate this as the cause.

Perhaps I should try to talk to him about it.

Logan nods sharply to himself and turns, walking out of his room toward Roman’s. The red door looms there, slightly ajar. Frowning, Logan raps on it gently with his knuckles.

“Roman? May I come in?”

No response.

“Roman?” Logan eases the door open. “Roman?”

No sign of Roman. The bathroom door isn’t locked, his laptop isn’t open, his phone is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps Roman simply forgot to close his door all the way. Logan shuts it carefully and turns to head downstairs.

“Virgil? Patton?”

Virgil glances up from his phone. “What’s up, L?”

Ignoring the little flutter in his chest at the first nickname he’s been called in a while, Logan adjusts his glasses and glances around. “Have you seen Roman?”

Virgil shakes his head. “Pat? Have you?”

“I think he said he was going into the Imagination but he’d be back for dinner?”

Logan nods. “Thank you both.”

“Logan?”

“Yes?”

“Can you, uh—“ Patton wrings his hands for a moment— “can you ask him what’s wrong for us?”

“Princey’s been off for a while, we wanna know why but he won’t tell us.”

Logan blinks. “Considering I was on my way to ask him the same thing, I take it he’s been as…hesitant to share any information with you as he has with me?”

Their nods make something twist in his chest.

“If he’s gonna tell anyone,” Virgil mutters as he turns to go, “it’ll be you.”

Logan pauses. “Excuse me?”

Virgil shrugs. “You’re his favorite, L. He thinks the sun shines outta your face.”

Despite himself, Logan feels heat rush to his cheeks. “I’m quite sure you’re confusing me for Patton, Virgil.”

“Oh, no, Princey’s got it bad f—“

“Virgil!”

“Oh come on,” Virgil groans, his head lolling on the couch as he turns to look at Patton, “you’ve noticed it too.”

“But that’s not our secret to tell!”

“Shit. Yeah, you’re right. Oops.”

“Wait, wait,” Logan stammers, quickly trying to get a grasp of the situation, “you—Roman what?”

Virgil shakes his head. “Nope. Sorry, Logan. I already fucked up. You’re gonna have to ask him. And hey, you were on your way to do just that!”

Logan narrows his eyes but Virgil shrugs, undaunted. He turns and pointedly does not run up the stairs.

The door to the Imagination is ajar. He takes a deep breath and pushes it open, expecting to meet some fantastical landscape, a village, or a castle, perhaps.

He doesn’t expect to wander into what looks like the grand foyer of some Victorian mansion.

The door shuts behind him with a thud that echoes gently around the room. His shoes aren’t particularly loud but his steps make resounding clicks as he walks through the halls. The walls are elegantly crafted, with artful splashes of color here and there. He comes to a grand staircase and has to swallow heavily at the richness of the wood under his fingers as he climbs slowly, slowly up.

There’s something here, he decides, that’s not been here for a while. Not since he started accompanying Roman more often. He remembers the first time, where he’d wearily said he didn’t have the patience for an adventure and had been pleasantly surprised by Roman’s offer of a simple walk. Each walk after that had been lovely, truly, but it was always painfully obvious that it was in the Imagination.

Now, though? Now the walls seem to curve about Logan as he walks, like petals of a flower curve about its center. The house seems to hold him, cradle him almost as he walks slowly through it. He can almost feel a gentle hand at the base of his spine, between his shoulder blades, under his chin. It takes no effort to keep walking, to discover more and more of this truly beautiful house, to look and look and look without fear of his eyes hurting or his head growing weary.

It feels like Roman, he realizes with a giddy bubble in his chest, this is Roman’s work. Roman is here.

That realization gives him enough courage to call out.

“Roman? Roman, are you here?”

“Logan?”

“Roman!” He turns around, trying to trace the echoes to their source. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the library, keep walking toward the back of the hall.”

Logan’s steps beat out an eager pace as he begins to hurry towards Roman’s voice. He meets a wide set of mahogany doors and pushes them open, looking for—

“Oh,” he murmurs as the doors swing wide, “oh, this is…magnificent.”

If he were—well, if he were Roman, he’d compare this to the library the Beast gifts Belle. The shelves tower over his head, two full floors of books stretching out almost as far as he can see. As he looks closer, he realizes this is a theatre, with the seats replaced with shelves. At the back of the library stands the stage, converted into a seating area with as many plush couches and overstuffed armchairs as one could ever want. Curtains drape themselves across a vast window, golden sunlight streaming inside. And on the window seat, standing as the doors fly open, is Roman.

“Roman, my goodness—“

“Whoa, easy, Logan,” Roman chuckles, catching Logan carefully by the elbows as he rushes through the library, “you’ll knock yourself over at this rate.”

“This is magnificent,” Logan manages, still looking around in awe—goodness, there are some books here that he’s only seen in passing— “how—how did you do this?”

“I’ve always had it,” Roman says, guiding him to sit on the window seat and crouching in front of him, “it’s my library.”

“This—this is yours?”

Half of Roman’s mouth tugs up into that crooked smile. “Yeah, Logan. This is mine. You didn’t think I just let my books lie around, did you?”

“But you—you—you’ve never shown this to me. To anyone.”

The smile falters. “Well, no.”

Logan takes a moment to actually look at Roman. Roman quirks his eyebrow as he notices the questioning gaze. His costume is a little less pristine than normal. There’s something slightly different about his expression. And his sword is nowhere to be seen.

“May I—can I ask why not?”

Roman smiles ruefully, glancing over Logan’s shoulder before dropping his gaze to the ground.

“When I need to think,” he says after a moment, “or just…sit for a little, I come here.”

He rests his hand on the seat next to Logan.

“I sit right here, and I think. I look outside into the garden. I watch the clouds. Or I stare at the shelves, and think about the books.”

He gestures behind him.

“Sometimes I’ll see people bustling through them, or characters diving in between pages.” The smile becomes a touch more wistful. “Or I’ll hear water rushing, or wind howling.”

He looks back. Logan’s mouth drops open at the openness of Roman’s expression.

“But mostly,” he finishes in a near whisper, “I just sit. And think. Because I can.”

“…this is your space,” Logan mumbles as he puts it together, “that’s…that’s why you haven’t shown anyone.”

Roman nods.

Logan should apologize. He should apologize and leave. He should never have expected that this would be alright.

But the thought of leaving this library, this house, Roman feels…so, so heavy.

“It’s alright, Logan,” Roman says patiently, sitting on the floor, “what did you need? Am I late for dinner?”

He shakes himself, sternly reminding his brain that he’s being rude now. “No, no, nothing of the sort, I simply needed to find you.”

Roman spreads his arms wide. “Well, you found me. Congratulations.”

It’s so close to the banter Logan misses that he finds himself smiling. “Thank you. Shall I assume to claim my prize now, then?”

“Mm, and what prize would that be?”

Roman blinks up at him expectantly when he doesn’t answer right away. There are several questions on the tip of his tongue and they war with each other.

What’s wrong?

Are you alright?

Did something happen?

The others and I have noticed changes in your behavior, could you explain them?

Did I do something wrong?

Can I stay here?

What did Virgil almost tell me?

“I’ve lost something,” Logan blurts instead, swallowing the lump in his throat when Roman blinks again, startled, “and I need you to help me find it.”

“Oh. Well, that should be easy enough. Where did you last see it?”

“Wait!”

Logan catches a startled Roman by his sleeve as he’s in the middle of getting up. He sits back down slowly, still staring at Logan.

“I don’t know where I lost it,” he says, because it’s the truth. Even for all his immaculate time-keeping, he can’t pinpoint the moment he lost Roman.

“That does make it more difficult,” Roman muses, tapping his fingers on his chin, “well, can you tell me what it is? Maybe I’ve seen it.”

I’m sure you have.

Logan takes a deep breath.

“I didn’t realize it was gone, at first,” he begins, “only that it—something changed. It was quieter. Rooms felt less…I believe ‘alive’ is the only word I can use to adequately describe it.”

Roman catches on to the fact he’s speaking about something abstract quickly. Though, of course he did, he’s very intelligent. He sits up a little straighter and takes Logan’s hand in both of his. That in itself is enough to make Logan swallow again.

“It was more difficult to continue working,” he says after a moment, looking at the ground, “because I didn’t know what was missing. I didn’t know whether the fault lay with myself or with Thomas or how to go about fixing it. I couldn’t think of anything.”

Roman makes a noise of sympathy, squeezing Logan’s hand.

“Of course, once I realized it was missing, I did all I could to find it.” He adjusts his glasses. “I gathered all the information I could to see what had gone wrong.”

“And,” Roman prompts gently, “what did you find?”

“It’s not in my room. It’s not in the kitchen. It’s not in the Imagination, or at least it wasn’t when I was there.”

Logan closes his eyes.

“It doesn’t make me fight back a smile every time I see it, because I am only concerned. It doesn’t make me look forward to seeing it, because it doesn’t seem to be happy to see me. It doesn’t make me want to say how important it is to me, because it doesn’t—“

“…doesn’t what, Logan?”

“…it doesn’t even give me a nickname anymore.”

Roman freezes.

Logan opens his eyes and looks at Roman, seeing his face turn pale.

“I’ve lost the one I love,” he confesses, “and I don’t know where he’s gone.”

———————————————————————

Roman’s heart stops.

Logan—Logan—L—

Logan loves him?

“Please,” Logan says in that soft, soft voice that makes Roman want to combust, “can you help me find him?”

“Wait, wait, Logan, you—you what?”

Logan shifts forward, cupping Roman’s hand. “Where did you go, Roman? Something happened, you left.”

“N-no, Logan, I didn’t go anywhere.”

“You did,” he corrects, “you…you’ve been different. You’ve been quieter, you haven’t taken me on any adventures—“

“I’ve taken you into the Imagination!”

“—and you stopped singing,” Logan finishes. Roman’s chest throbs with the way Logan’s voice cracks on the last word. “You left, Roman, where did you go?”

“I—I was trying to—to—“ Roman swallows heavily. “Wait, you love me?”

Logan blinks, tilting his head. “Of course, yes, I love you, Roman.”

Roman’s face flares. “You can’t—you can’t just say that, Logan.”

“Why not?”

“I’ll believe you. I’ll—“ the urge to bury his face in his hands burns but he can’t, can’t pull away from Logan—“I’ll believe you.”

Logan hums. “And why shouldn’t you believe me?”

An incredulous laugh forces its way out of his throat. “Because you can’t love me.”

He slams his eyes shut as Logan starts to move away. He’s ruined it. He’s ruined so much of his hard work. He’s destroyed it. He’s hurt Logan. How could he?

“And why can’t I love you, Roman?”

He laughs again, though this one might be technically considered a sob. “Because I’m loud! I’m obnoxious, I want to spend all my time daydreaming, I’m so out of touch with the real world, I never want to be serious, I’m—I’m—“

“Passionate,” Logan interrupts quietly, something still cupping his hand, “optimistic. Hardworking.”

Roman huffs. “That’s not special.”

“Intelligent.”

Now he does laugh. “Not compared to you.”

Logan’s stifled noise is enough to make him open his eyes. He frowns up at Logan. He looks…heartbroken.

“Roman,” he murmurs, “do you honestly believe that?”

He squirms uncomfortably on the floor. “…it’s not like it isn’t obvious. El principe es estupido.”

“It’s far from obvious, Roman,” Logan insists, “why do you think I enjoy our verbal sparring so much?”

“You what?”

“I respect and admire your intelligence. You’re—well, not to insult the others when they’re not here to defend themselves, but you’re the only one who really keeps up with me.” Logan smiles at him. He smiles at him. “And you’re kind, Roman. Relentlessly so, sometimes.”

Roman can only gape at him.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed everything you do,” Logan chides gently, “I do notice. And I am so thankful for it. But this…” He gives Roman’s hand another squeeze. “This I don’t understand. Where did you go, Roman?”

“I—I…” Roman swallows. “I thought I was doing it for you.”

“For me?”

“Y-you like serious things! You don’t want to be seen as a joke and I’ve never seen you as a joke, Logan, you have to believe me, and I thought that—that I—“

“Roman—“

“I make fun of the things I love, Logan!” Roman’s throat almost aches from the strain of saying it out loud. “And you—you don’t like it when we’re not serious and I’m not serious so I—I thought if I—if—if—“

“You changed so I would…love you?”

Roman shakes his head shamefully. “So you would tolerate me.”

“Oh, little star—“

Roman lets out an oof as Logan tugs him forward, his knees hitting the ground roughly as he pulls Roman into a hug. He’s warm, he’s so warm and so Logan…the frames of his glasses are cool against the side of Roman’s face, the knot of his tie pressing into the hollow of his chest. And he’s being so sweet, so tender as he holds Roman on the floor of the library.

Roman clutches him back. It’s been agony, not being able to touch him, not even the barest brush of shoulders or knocking their elbows together. But now Logan is here and he can have this.

“I don’t want serious,” he hears Logan murmur, “not from you. Alright, sometimes, yes, I want you to listen but never to be that serious. You’re—you’re you, Roman. That’s what I want.”

Oh.

He laughs as the tears start to fall onto Logan’s collar. “You found me, Logan.”

Logan just gives him a squeeze. “I did, little star.”

Oh, Roman was not prepared for that. Instead, he can hear Logan chuckle as he tenses for a moment.

“No?”

“Yes,” Roman blurts out quickly, fumbling with his clumsy tongue, “yes. So much yes.”

“Yes, it is then, little star.”

He hums contentedly, burying his nose in the crook of Logan’s neck. “You found me,” he whispers, rocking them back and forth, “and I found you.”

“Yes, little star, you found me.” Logan pulls back to cup his face, a comforting noise escaping him at the evidence of drying tears. “And now…please, don’t leave me?”

“Never, Logan,” he swears, “never again.”

He gets to see that wonderful soft glow on Logan’s face for a moment longer before that gleam—oh, that wonderful gleam—comes back as he arches an eyebrow.

“No? Then why am I still ‘Logan?’”

Oh. So that’s how this is going to go, hmm? Roman lets a little more darkness slip into his smirk than he normally would. It only grows wider as Logan looks a little surprised.

“My dearest darling nerd,” he purrs, “if you wanted me to lavish you with pet names, you know you need only ask.”

“That is not what I meant,” Logan says firmly, undone a little by the blush now fanning his cheeks.

Roman chuckles. “Oh, what’s wrong, my sweet little pi, is this not what you wanted?”

“R-Roman!”

“Goodness, Logan, your face is so warm.” Roman’s arms come up to hug him as he buries his face in his neck. “What, you can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

“You’re one to talk,” comes the slightly muffled reply, “you were blushing from my pet name too.”

“Ah, yes, how could I forget? ‘Little star,’ well…” Roman cups the back of Logan’s neck and brings that darling face back out to smile at. “If I’m the star, then you must be the whole galaxy.”

Logan tries to frown. Bless him, he tries, but he’s so flustered that it turns into this adorable pout as he leans back to get up.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Roman chuckles, wrapping his arms and legs tightly around him, “you stay right here in my lap.”

“Roman!”

“What?” He tilts his head. “Can you think of anywhere better to be than right here, in my lap…with me?”

He can’t help the note of vulnerability that slips in at the end. Maybe Logan doesn’t want this, maybe he is too much, maybe he just ruined it…

“No,” Logan murmurs after a moment, “I guess I can’t.”

And really, it is marvelous, there on the floor, golden sunlight streaming over them, in the library, surrounded by the quiet shelves and safe hallways of the house.

———————————————————————

“I have to ask,” Roman says, giving Logan a little shake after a moment, “how did you…?”

“Find out?”

“Mm.”

“Well…” Logan toys with Roman’s collar. “I was coming to ask you about it anyway, but Virgil—“

“Virgil?” Roman raises an eyebrow. “He said something now, did he?”

Logan squints at him. “…why do I have a feeling there’s more to this than you’re telling me?”

Roman shrugs. “It doesn’t really matter, not really.”

“Now that I don’t believe for an instant.”

“It got me my Logan,” Roman says softly, leaning forward to rub their noses together, “didn’t it?”

“…well yes, I suppose it did.”

Roman hums contentedly, cuddling into Logan like a lazy cat, sprawled out in the sunlight to nuzzle its kitten. A…surprisingly sweet image. The Imagination—Roman’s Imagination must be affecting him.

There are worse fates.

“But I can’t imagine,” he says after a moment, “that a prince such as yourself can allow such a slight?”

The grin on Roman’s face is priceless.

“Virgil,” Roman sings as they fling open the door to the rest of the Mindscape, and goodness Logan can’t tell you how much he’s missed that voice— “I have a question for you!”

Logan hears muffled cursing coming from the living room.

“What’s up, Princey?”

“Well our dearest Specs here just told me something very interesting—“ he winks at Logan— “and I would love to hear your side of the story.”

“Oh, uh, really? Well, that’s cool. On an unrelated note, I’m gonna be in my room for the foreseeable future.”

“Hmmm…not if I get there before you!”

“Shit!”

“My darling,” Roman says softly, pressing a kiss to the back of Logan’s hand, “will you excuse me one moment, please?”

And what is Logan supposed to do but agree? Roman is back.

“I’ll be with you shortly.”

Roman tears off down the hallway after Virgil, their shouts filling the Mindscape once more.

General Taglist:@frxgprince @potereregina @reddstardust @gattonero17 @iamhereforthegayshit @thefingergunsgirl @awkwardandanxiousfander @creative-lampd-liberties @djpurple3 @winterswrandomness @sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes @iminyourfandom @bullet-tothefeels @full-of-roman-angst-trash @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind @demoniccheese83 @pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious @firefinch-ember @fandomssaremysoul @im-an-anxious-wreck @crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch @enby-ralsei @unicornssunflowersandstuff @wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams @averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @aularei @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws @cecil-but-gayer @i-am-overly-complicated @annytheseal @alias290 @tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance @whyiask @theaceofcrows @emilythezeldafan @frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires @cyanide-violence @oonagh2 @xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx @rabbitsartcorner

#sanders sides #patton sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #roman angst #roman sanders angst #virgil sanders #dragonbabbles #fic #logince

265 notes · View notes

thecrowslullaby · 3 years

Note

If you want to for the setting, trope and sentence thing 13, Q and 42 and you pick the ship.

But you just start it by doing as much as you want than I'll carry on as much as I want and than whomever wants it to continue will carry it on.

That is, if you want to and I'm sure you are a good writer, you clearly planned out the murder mystery AU very well.

I combined two prompts because I'm a cheater like that.

CW: none I can think of

Summary: Patton plans a group vacation in the mountains, too bad 4 out of 6 friends couldn't make it to the destination before the snow storm hit.

Pairing: loceit (hey, you told me to pick a ship so you have yourself to blame for this)

He was stuck alone with Logan.

He was stuck alone in a house with Logan in the middle of nowhere without a clear notion of when the others would arrive.

It was Patton's fault. As per usual he insisted they should all do something together. He rented a vacation home and more or less forced all his friends to spend their winter vacation together.

To say Janus wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of spending 4 days of his hard earned work-leave with so many people, with one of them being his crush, in the middle of nowhere would be an understatement. He really thought it couldn’t get worse. The universe seemed to prove him wrong.

Logan, ever the pedantic, arrived first, retrieved the keys and settled into one of the rooms. By the time Janus arrived, tired out of his mind from his business trip, the tall man managed to unpack his suitcase and refresh himself.

The trip was supposed to only last a day, but his boss underestimated how much needed to be done, again. So Janus was forced to stay behind another day to help close off the deal, again. He thought he would be the last one to arrive, but instead the only one there to greet him was Logan.

“Where are the others?” Janus asked and Logan’s face fell a little. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

“Unfortunately Patton's mini van broke down and the rest of the group was forced to make an emergency stop. To make matters worse there was a weather forecast for a snow storm so Patton, Virgil and the twins decided to wait it out in one of the hotels along the road.” Janus made a face.

“Great.” He said sarcastically. “Just what I wanted to hear.” Logan raised an eyebrow.

“Why would it-”

“That was sarcasm, dear.” Janus signed. “Is there any good news?”

“Their van is repaired but they most likely won’t be arriving until tomorrow.” Logan said “Patton promised to keep us updated.”

“Splendid” Janus signed. “So I guess we’re stuck here for the next few hours.”

“I’m going to inspect all the windows.” Logan informed Janus.

“Suit yourself” Janus signed, his bag still slouched over his shoulder “I’m gonna lay down and die for like a half hour okay?”

He didn’t wait for a response and quickly made his escape. He threw his bag next to the armchair in the living room. He still had some time before the others would arrive so he didn’t need to worry about securing a good bedroom and rest up after the long day he had.

He opened his phone to a dozen missed calls and unread messages, most of them likely warnings about the upcoming weather change. He signed as he started reading through them.

At least he still had reception. He considered that a small blessing.

That is until Remus called him. Sure he could have not picked up but he was desperate for a distraction. And his friend was distracting if nothing else.

'How's your one on one vacation with Venti ma-hot-ion going'

'Please never use that nickname agan' he could hear Remus cackling on the other side.

'You never answered my question.'

'We're stuck in a house together, how well do you think it's going?'

'Very well? You already smooched him? ' Janus signed, rubbing his temples

‘Nothing happened, and nothing is going to happen Remus’

'Booooooring, come on Janus, tell him you like him keep me entertained a little'

'Go bully your brother'

'Nah, that's too easy.' Remus signed dramatically and Janus could hear Virgil snickering in the background. Remus probably put him on loudspeaker.

'Do it Janus' he could hear the emo shout 'do it fo looooove~' he teased

'You have to Janus~' Remus joined in, much to Virgil’s delight 'go confess your undying looooove~'

'Hush it, both of you.' he hissed at his friends who only started to snicker more. He might trust Remus and Virgil with this information, but Lord help him if either Roman or Patton would find out.

'Oh come on, you love us~'

'Not as much as he loves Logan~'

They started to snicker again.

'One more word out of either of you and I'm texting Patton for your location to drive over and kick your asses'

'Kinky'

'Maybe focus on Logan's ass for now.'

'That's it, I'm disowning you two'

'Will Logan get custody of-'

"Janus?" Logan poked his head into the living room. Virgil and Remus started to chant 'Logan' while snickering like madmen, clearly loud enough for Logan to hear, as he pointed to the electrical device "Are those Remus and Virgil" Janus quickly hung up.

"What do you mean?" He smiled innocently at Logan and batted his eyelashes.

"Nevermind" he said slowly, thankfully deciding not to press. "I'd hoped you'd help me start on dinner in case we lose power later on in the evening."

Oh yes, perfect. Just what he needed to get his mind off Logan: spending more time with Logan.

"No thank you." The look on Logan's face was priceless. He stood there, mouth wide open. "Unless you want flies for dinner I suggest closing your mouth, dear."

Logan drew his mouth into a thin line. And Janus snickered, sliding off the couch.

"Fine, fine, what do you want me to do?"

***

Janus was halfway through chopping tomatoes when he heard his phone buzz.

It buzzed again.

And again.

He signed as he wiped his hands on a kitchen cloth.

A text-spam from Remus, each of them reading ‘Janus’

‘What?’ He angrily texted back.

‘Ok, I have your attention’ Janus rolled his eyes as he watched the three dots blink under Remus' contact.

'Hey don't freak out' this was already off to a great start.

'What did you do?' Janus wrote back. This couldn't be good, but then again he should have expected Remus to stir up some chaos before the vacation ended. After all, his first encounter with his current best friend was trying to get him out of a literal burning dumpster. He hoped whatever it was, it didn’t involve arson and a lengthy lawsuit this time.

'But I might have sent something to the wrong number.' Ok, this couldn’t be that bad.

‘You want me to help clean up your messes again?’ He teased.

'Well, this is technically more of your mess.’ he could hear Remus gulp. ‘I might have accidentally sent something meant for Virgil to Logan and it might or might not mention our most recent conversation.'

Oh no

Oh no no no no no

‘You did WHAT?’ He quickly typed back, no,no, no. This had to be a mistake

‘An upsy daisy?’ Remus had the audacity to write back.

'I'm going to murder you.'

'Kinky'

Janus took a deep breath. If he survives this, his friend sure won’t.

#ts janus #ts logan #loceit #crow writes #Also thank you ^^.#but murder mystery was planned while I was high on polish medicine #and the remaining two months was me trying to decipher #the notes I took XDD #and filling plot holes #stressfull and fun expierence XDDD

46 notes · View notes

unsymp-sides-content · 3 years

Note

Brotherly fic between Roman and Remus (maybe them reconciling their differences) w u! Patton and Virgil? Tysm ur doing the lords work

Characters: Roman, Remus, Patton, Virgil, Logan (mentioned), Janus (mentioned)

Word count: 1060

Roman couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this happy. Ever since he and Remus had been split, he'd longed to be with his brother again, regardless of how many times Patton told him Remus was evil. And now, finally, here he was. Walking through the Imagination with his brother without having to worry about any of the others or what they would say.

It hadn't been easy getting to this point, of course. They'd spent years apart and being told to hate each other. Going from that to being like actual brothers had taken time. Most of their first few attempts at reconciliation had ended in disaster, both of them saying things they didn't really mean and fleeing off to their rooms, exhausted and desolate.

But slowly, things started to change. Brainstorming sessions that previously were just the two of them yelling at each other started to become more productive. Insults turned into genuine banter. Remus stopped rolling his eyes at all of Roman's ideas. Roman started to laugh at some of Remus's jokes. And both of them began to truly enjoy each other's company.

Of course the whole process had been complicated by them having to keep it secret. They'd tried being open about it, at first. And while, Logan and Janus had both been supportive, Virgil and Patton had been less than thrilled.

As soon as he found out, Patton had immediately started lecturing him about how Remus was and never would be anything more than evil, how he had and Roman had been separated for a reason. Virgil had been just as bad. Pacing back and forth as Patton spoke, nodding in agreement and occasionally making a comment about how Remus was too dangerous and couldn't be trusted.

Roman had tried explaining himself to them, but they'd refused to listen. The conversation had ended with Patton bursting into tears over Roman's 'betrayal' as he'd called it, and Virgil screaming at Roman as he finally sank out. As much as he'd hoped they'd take it better, he was hardly surprised. But he'd always assumed they'd come around eventually. How wrong he'd been.

Roman had been in his room, working on a painting when he'd felt it. A sharp sense of panic that slammed into him like a wave, making him drop the paintbrush and stumble back. His and Remus's bond may have been weakened before, but at this point they were close enough for Roman to know what this meant right away. His brother was in danger.

He'd sunk out to his room immediately, his worry increasing when he saw Remus wasn't there. The room was a complete mess, but then, Remus's room was always a mess. It didn't necessarily mean anything. Yet, as Roman stepped out into the corridor, he couldn't stop his hands shaking slightly.

A second wave of panic hit, far stronger than the first, and he reached out to the wall to steady himself. Something was definitely wrong and he needed to find his brother right now. Closing his eyes, Roman took a deep breath and forced himself to focus. He could feel that Remus was somewhere nearby but getting his exact location was much harder. After a few minutes though, he had it and he sunk down before he could think any better of it.

He'd appeared in Virgil's room, where the anxious side sat conversing with Patton. The two of them looked up as he appeared, though there seemed to be no sign of Remus anywhere. Patton smiled sweetly at him, motioning to the space next to him. "Roro! We weren't expecting to see you here. Why don't come and sit down and then you can tell us what you wanted?"

Roman didn't move. "What I want is for you to give me my brother back."

"We don't have your brother." Virgil snapped, rolling his eyes. There was something a little off about his demeanor though, and Roman saw through it immediately. He could still feel Remus nearby and Virgil had never been a particularly good liar.

Roman summoned his sword, fixing the two of them with a glare. "We both know that's not true."

Virgil stayed still for a second before slowly getting to his feet, gaze fixed unblinkingly on Roman. "Fine. If you're that eager to see him, I won't stop you." He waved his hand and the door to his closet slowly swung open.

Roman's eyes widened as he saw his brother laying there, eyes wide with fear and bound with rope. He'd rushed forward to untie him immediately, only realising his mistake when his foot crossed into the closet and the door slammed shut behind him.

The fear started to set in right away, and by the time he'd managed to untie Remus, his breathing was coming out in short, shaky gasps. He falled back against the door, one hand reaching for his brother and the two of them had sat there, clinging to each other.

It had taken them hours to get out. Trying to break down the door had been futile and they knew it would be awhile before Janus or Logan realized they were missing and figured out where they were. So they'd decided to summon a door to the Imagination instead. It hadn't been easy. Being in there had weakened both of them and the panic that was slowly eating away at them only proved a further distraction. But finally, they'd managed and tumbled out of the closet into a grassy field, both of them shaking.

Neither of them had spoken for several minutes, simply laying there and trying to calm down. Eventually, Remus had stood up and held out a hand to Roman. He'd taken it and slowly gotten to his feet and without a word they'd both started walking.

He wasn't sure one of them had spoken first, but eventually they'd fallen into conversation, laughing and teasing each other to push away the memories of what had just happened. And slowly but surely, Roman felt himself start to genuinely relax. His laughter became less strained and he forced himself to focus on Remus. On where they were, safe and sound and away from everyone else. They'd have to go back eventually, and find a way to deal with Patton and Virgil but they were safe for now. And that was enough.

#sanders sides #sanders side fic #remus sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #unsympathetic patton #unsympathetic virgil #creativitwins #roman angst #remus angst #if anyone tags this as r*mr*m #I will come through your screen and stab you

70 notes · View notes

patton-cake · 3 years

Text

Past adventures and future experiences

Pairings: Logicality and very background Anaroceit, it's only mentioned.

Summary: The Christmas ball, a magical high school experience. At least that’s what it’s supposed to be. Patton knows that he has to ask Logan soon or else he might be too late. You know what? Forget it. There’s no way that Logan would want to be his date.

Word count: 3635

Additional information: Merry Christmas Gabi! I had the honour to be your Secret Santa this year and I really hope that you're not disappointed with that! Anyway, I love you and I hope that you'll like my gift :D @irritating-lady-knight

~The Story~

Books had always been Patton's escape from this repetitive world. Sure, there were a lot of good things in the world and he certainly wasn't complaining, but sometimes it just feels nice to be somewhere else you know? To be away from your annoying teachers, who think that 25 homework assignments due next week is completely reasonable. To be away from that one feeling you get when you think that you've finished everything, but you're not 100% sure, and to be away from himself for once.

That's why Patton started to read.

When he was younger, his mom used to take him to the library every Tuesday afternoon. They would spend hours reading together about brave princes who saved princesses ("But what if I want to save a prince instead of a princess mama?" "You can save whoever you want Mon Étoile"), they learned about the most beautiful creatures, and one day, they met one of Patton's future best friends.

Logan would teach him everything he had learned about the stars and their different constellations, the planets and their little baby moons ("They're not their children Patton.") And in return, Patton would read him his favourite stories and take him on thrilling adventures.

Unfortunately, the boys grew older and with becoming older, came more responsibilities. School wasn't much of a problem for the two friends. They both enjoy learning and Patton even made a new friend (who he immediately introduced to Logan, because the two were and always will be a package deal).

At the first sight, you would think that someone like Virgil would never become friends with someone like Patton. His dark black hair with faint purple dye, dark lether jacket decorated with punk rock pins and spiky boots have scared off a lot of people, but not Patton. Instead of running away, Patton basically adopted him.

Don't worry! He and Logan are still best friends! Patton has two hands and a lot of room in his heart, especially for someone like Logan.

"Thinking about Nerd number 1 again huh?" Patton shook his head and blinked a few times, before completely zoning back into reality. Oh right, school. Virgil laughed at Patton's 'angry' glare and pointed behind him.

"Good news Pattycake, your sweetheart is coming this way."

Patton poked his side and grumbled "He's not my sweetheart!"

With a look of disbelief, Virgil stared at his best friend and rolled his eyes. "You two are basically married already! Roman and I have a bet that you two got married years ago somewhere in France, because that's totally the type of romantic Logan would pick, but just didn't invite us to the wedding."

"If you keep bullying me then no, I won't invite you to the wedding!" Patton tried to hold back his laughter, but failed completely.

"So there is going to be a wedding??"

Before Patton could react, he heard a quiet voice calling his name.

"Salutations Patton, Virgil. I hope your day has been satisfactory so far." Logan had a slight blush on his face and was anxiously fidgeting with his tie.

"Goodmorning Lo! We saved you a seat!"

A small smile appeared on Logan's face as he sat down next to Patton.

"So mr. and mr. Nerd, did you two already hear about the nightmare that is the Christmas ball?"

Oh right. The Christmas ball. The event of the year.

The Christmas ball was this party for everyone in their last year. It was a sort of last goodbye before they graduated. Basically their school just took prom and slapped a different name on it to feel special and creative.

"Yeay! I bet that you, Janus and Roman are going together huh?" Patton winked at him and gave him a bright smile. He had been so happy for his friend when he and Roman finally got together and even happier when later Janus got added to the relationship. They were really adorable with the three of them.

"Mhm! Roman wanted to do some big promposal, but fortunately for us, Janus managed to talk him out of it. But how about you Logan? Anyone you wanna ask?"

Oh gosh Patton was going to kill Virgil. His friend knew that he wanted to ask Logan. In fact, he had tried to ask him like 5 times already, but every time he was about to pop the question, his anxiety took over and he asked some other random thing. This had lead him to asking Logan about the way ducks keep floating, their math homework and random facts about ladybugs instead. Patton truly was hopeless.

"Logan? Are you blushing? Now you gotta tell!" Virgil leaned over the table with a mischievous smile on his face.

"I did no such thing, but yes, I suppose there is someone I'd like to go with." Unfortunately for Logan, his face only turned darker red, which made Virgil laugh harder.

"Tell us more Logan!! Come on!" Virgil gently poked Logan's arm and leaned on his elbows, interrogating Logan,

"Well.. They're the most wonderful person in the world and I could not imagine my life without them, but I'm not telling you their name, not until I've asked them."

"Come on Lo! You can trust us! Right Patt? Patton? Everything okay?" His voice suddenly turned concerned when he looked at Patton, who was fidgeting with his necklace and looking at his hands, a sad smile on his face.

"Yeay, I'm fine," he grapped his backpack and stood up, "I'm gonna go to my next class, see you later guys."

In all honesty, Patton wasn't fine. He had failed to ask Logan to the prom and now he was too late. Gosh he was pathetic. He felt a few teardrops falling down his face as he walked outside. Patton desperately needed to get his mind off of everything, so he went to the place he always went when he was sad. The magic treehouse.

When they were younger, Logan and Patton had wanted to go on their own adventure. They tried to discover the hidden secrets from their library (the only thing they found was that the librarian was secretly dating ms. Williams. Patton still got shivers when he thought about that), they practised their sword fighting skills, discovered that Logan shouldn't be trusted with sharp objects and searched for hidden treasures in their backyard.

One day, after getting complaints from ms, Williams, their parents decided that they should have their own little place, somewhere where they didn't disturb other people. Logan and Patton had spent all summer building their treehouse together. Of course that meant that their parents build it and that they had decorated it with fancy fairy lights.

Patton smiled when he reached his backyard. The magic tree was located in the little private forest, behind their yard and right now, it looked absolutely magical. It had started snowing a few days ago so the whole scenery was covered in a little layer of white snow.

He carefully climbed up the ladder and entered the treehouse. Patton looked around him with a soft smile on his face, nothing had changed in their secret hideout. The shelves were covered with books, the fairy lights were still covering almost the entire ceiling and on the walls hang multiple drawings of their great adventures.

A chuckle escaped Patton as he looked through their drawings. Most of them were from when they were 9. He could barely identify the two blue stickman figures as Logan and him wearing their crowns. Logan always said that one day, he and Patton would become mighty rulers of their own library kingdom. They would have flying books and magical flowers that changed colours.

Patton's heart broke a little when he thought about that. Logan always claimed that they'd be together forever, Patton knew that they had only been children at the time, but still, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken. He'll get over it eventually, Patton would be happy for Logan and his date of course, but it still hurt.

Suddenly, his phone started to beep and he could hear the Sherlock theme song starting to play. Logan was calling him. Patton turned his phone off and sunk down to the floor. Class had started half an hour ago and here he was, crying in his childhood treehouse. How pathetic.

After a while, Patton's breathing had become steady again and he walked towards the bookshelves. A shiver spread over his body and he finally began to realise exactly how cold it was in the treehouse. Patton picked up the first book and started to read. Stories had always cheered him up a bit.

"I think that I remember that one."

Patton snapped his head towards Logan and let out a deep breath.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Patton knew that he was being hypocrite but at this moment, he couldn't really care about that.

"As should you." Logan sat down next to Patton, taking in the their treehouse. "Nothing has changed here, has it? Do you remember when we were 11 and those bullies threatened me on the playground?" Logan chuckled softly and looked at their drawings, "We spend all day hiding here, drawing together."

Patton too, let out a soft laugh and looked at his hands, keeping his head low.

"Wasn't that the day we made the first drafts for our little kingdom? You know? With the weird roses and the unrealistic inhabitants?"

"Hey! Don't you dare insult Regno Libri like that!" Logan exclaimed. He tried to keep a serious face, but couldn't help but laugh. Patton giggled softly and finally looked Logan in his eyes.

"I'm sorry if I worried you Logan... I just needed some time for myself, I'll be fine."

Logan smiled soflty and took Patton's hand, gently fidgeting with his fingers.

"You're my best friend Patton, I know when something is bothering you. It's okay if you don't want to tell me, but just know that Virgil and I are here to help you okay? We care about you." He squeezed Patton's hand and moved closer so there sides were touching.

"I know Logan, thanks.." He slightly blushed at their intertwining hands and leaned onto Logan's shoulder. Physical touch had always been the best solution to cheer Patton up and especially if Logan was providing that touch. Logan would never admit it, but he secretly was a great hugger.

After a few minutes, Logan gently let go of Patton's hand and put his arm around Patton's shoulders instead, carefully pulling him closer. He gently stroked his hands through Patton's curls, softly twirling them around his fingers before speaking up again,

"Patton? There is something I'd like to ask you.." Logan smiled down at his friend with a loving gaze,

"I know that this might not be the most perfect time to ask, but do you might want to be my date to the Christmas ball? And perhaps we can try to become Promkings? Instead of rulers? Do you remember that?"

Wait

What?

Patton's thoughts zoned out and he looked at Logan with a shocked look on his face. Did.. did Logan actually asked him to prom?

"Patton? I- you don't have to, I understand if you don't see me that way, if you don't like me like that but-"

"Logan, please don't doubt yourself that much."

And with that, he kissed him. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was everything they needed. The kiss was sweet and gentle and it tasted a bit like vanilla, Patton couldn't get enough off it.

When Patton pulled away and looked up at Logan he giggled a bit. His (boy)friend (?) had a dazy smile on his face and his cheeks were bright red. After a few seconds, he spoke up

"I- you- is that a yes?"

Patton chuckled at the normally composed and stoic boy and kissed his cheek,

"Yes Logan, I'd love to be your date to the Christmas Ball." Patton leaned his head back onto Logan's shoulder and nuzzeld his cheek gently, taking in everything around them.

He had just kissed Logan

Patton had just kissed Logan

And it was perfect

After what felt like hours, Logan kissed Patton's forehead and carefully stood up. He reached out a hand to help Patton and linked there hands together,

"I think it's time to return, Virgil must be really worried." Patton let out a yawn and leaned into Logan's embrace,

"You're probably right."

And yeay, Logan had been right

"Where the hell were you Patton? I was so worried! Are you okay? Why did you leave and- Are.. are you two holding hands?" Virgil waved around with his arms, face full of worry. But when he saw Logan's loving gaze at Patton, something in him shifted. A soft smile appeared on his face and he smirked down at the two.

Patton looked down at their hands and blushed soflty. He loved Virgil, he really did and it was so funny to see him turn into this overprotective mother hen. Eventhough Virgil liked to act like he didn't care about other people, Patton knew how much of a softy he actually was.

"So when's the wedding?"

Logan almost choked on air.

It had only taken a few days before the entire city was covered in snow. Patton could hear the white crystals crunch under his feet as he walked through the park close to his house. Virgil and Patton had agreed to meet up a few hours before the Christmas ball was supposed to start. He checked his phone when he arrived at the old oak tree. The old oak tree had been in the park for ages, hence the nickname. Patton could remember being a little boy and trying to climb all the way to the top of the tree, even though Logan would always warn him that he could fall down and break his legs. Which he eventually did. Well, not both of his legs. Patton had only broken his left ankle, but he got a lolly from the nice nurse lady so he was fine. Giggling at the memory of Logan’s concern, Patton unlocked his phone to check the time. Five minutes until Virgil would arrive.

Just when Patton was about to send Virgil a message, letting him know that he had arrived, Patton saw something flying towards him before said thing hit the ground with a muffled sound.

“Damn that was supposed to hit you!” Patton turned around a saw a big bundle of purple coming his way. The purple blob tried hard to keep his balance on the slippery snow as it made it’s way to the tree. “Did it scare you?” It’s voice was slightly muffled by a fluffy scarf but Patton could still recognize the bright purple hair that always looked like an absolute mess.

“Oh I was terrified” Patton rolled his eyes while simultaneously trying to contain his laughter. Virgil scoffed and lightly hit Patton’s arm.

“Mission completed then I guess, but it’s not like you could have done it bette-“

Before Virgil could even finish his sentence, a cold snowball flew into his face. He quickly shook all the snow off of himself and looked at Patton who had a really sweet and innocent smile on his face

“Oh you bastard, it’s on” Virgil quietly mumbled to himself and began to collect more snow.

“What did you say Virgy? You looked like you needed a little cool down time!” and yeay it was really no ones fault besides himself when Patton too, got hit by a snowball right in his face.

A lot of snowballs later, Virgil walked up to his friend with his hands high up in the sky, slightly shivering from the cold.

“You won okay, I give up. I’m literally freezing.” Patton took this opportunity to hug Virgil around his waist and nuzzle close.

“Alright, alright we get it, you love hugs. Now come let’s get some hot chocolate or something. We deserve it after this intense battle.”

Patton nodded in Virgil’s chest and together the tried to find their balance while walking out of the park.

When the two friends walked into Patton’s house, they were met with an overwhelming smell of gingerbread and apple-pie. Which made sense because Patton’s parent had been baking Christmas treats for their family this morning.

“You mind if I grab one?” Virgil held up one of the chocolate chip cookies and ploffed down on one of the chairs in the living room. He took a bite when Patton motioned that he could eat it and let out a small noise of contentment.

“Your suit arrived last week right?” Patton nodded and Virgil continued, “Have you tried it on yet?”

Patton nodded again and smiled brightly at Virgil

“It fitted perfectly! I really hope that Lo will like it too”

He hugged himself anxiously and Virgil stood up to wrap him into a strong embrace

“Hey it’s okay Pat. Your boyfriend absolutely adores you. Believe me, if it would have taken you two any longer to get together I would have sued Logan, because he just couldn’t shut up about how handsome you looked and how he would just skip the prom because he couldn’t ask you.”

Patton giggled and blushed slightly

“And besides, if Logan does somehow decide to hurt you in any way or form, I will gladly kill him for you!” Patton lightly hit Virgil’s arm before looking up with his bright smile returned on his face.

“Thanks Virgil.”

After Patton changed into his light blue suit and Virgil had eaten more chocolate chip cookies, he also finally decided to put on his indigo purple suit with bright red and golden bracelets to match his boyfriends. Logan and Patton had agreed to wear matching ties, which meant that Patton was wearing a beautiful navy-blue necktie.

He triple checked if he had all of his stuff, including his phone, keys and if Virgil was ready, when he suddenly heard a soft knock on his door. With a mischievous smirk, Virgil walked up to the door and opened it slightly, leaning in the doorway.

"Hello Logan"

"Salutations Virgil, is something wrong?" Patton couldn't see Logan but he could identify the slight shake in his voice as anxiety.

"I don't know Logan. Tell me, are you going to dance with Patton tonight? Bring him some pretty flowers? Give him everything he deserves and more?" He could hear Logan clear his throat and Patton was sure that he was anxiously fidgeting with his necktie by now. Logan always did that when he was nervous.

"If Patton wants to dance tonight then I'll gladly join him, I did indeed bring him a flower and believe me, I will try to do anything I can to make him happy." Patton almost melted at the soft adoration in Logan's voice and he pushed Virgil out of the doorway.

"Virgil! Stop that! You're bullying the poor thing. I'm sure that Logan will be a true gentleman, as will I." Patton giggled at Virgil when he rolled his eyes and then turned back to face his boyfriend.

"Hi Logan," Patton whispered breathlessly, "you look absolutely amazing"

Logan, who looked equally as breathless, blushed slightly and whispered back with a soft voice "As do you Sunshine, as do you."

He then held his hand out and presented Patton a singular light blue and slightly bowed

"For you my love" Logan smirked up at Patton and chuckled softly.

"Move your domestic display elsewhere you nerds. This is too nauseating." Virgil smiled softly down at Patton and hugged him quickly before Logan took Patton's hand to escort him to his car.

The night sky was filled with stars when the two boys finally arrived at the oh so dreaded Christmas ball. Well, of course the ball wasn't that dreaded anymore. Patton wondered if anything could be dreadful when Logan was there by his side.

"Your mind is lost in space Sunshine, what is troubling you?" Logan intertwined their fingers and gently rubbed his thumb over Patton's hand to soothe him.

"Nothing's wrong Starlight, everything is perfect. Absolutely perfect." The honesty in Patton's voice made Logan blush and together, they entered the ballroom.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by hundreds of fake snowflake decorations. The fairy lights gave the room an enchanting atmosphere and because it was Christmas, in the corner of the room stood an eight feet tall Christmas tree, decorated with the most beautiful ornaments. It looked magical

"Well I did promised a dance didn't I?" Patton turned around to face Logan and saw that his boyfriend was holding out his hand for him.

"We don't want to disappoint Virgil now do we?" He giggled as he happily accepted Logan's invitation and followed him to the dancefloor.

The music started to play and Patton could feel Logan's hands gently wrapped around his waist. Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear the other people entering the dancefloor, but Patton was too distracted at this moment. Blue. Beautiful dark blue. The only thing Patton noticed was how the lights reflected into Logan dark blue eyes, making him truly look magical.

"..Logan" Patton slightly cringed at the crack in his voice, but Logan didn't seem to notice

"Patton?" His boyfriend looked at him with a confused smile and a lot of admiration in his eyes.

"I love you"

"Well that's perfect Patton, do you want to know why?" Logan blushed while still keeping a smirk on his face leading them through their dance. He continued when Patton nodded,

"Because I love you too."

The two swayed the night away, living in their own private bubble. It was just the two of them and it was absolutely perfect.

#logan sanders #patton x logan #logicality #logan x patton #long post #patton sanders #virgil sanders #anaroceit #(mentioned)#pattoncake writes #Gosh I'm nervous about this one #I really hope that you like it Gabbee #This is my longest fic so far

90 notes · View notes

mc-i-r · 3 years

Text

Thrill of the kill

Chapter 10

Masterpost

Ship: intrulogical

Pov: Virgil

Tw: guns, shooting, blood, dead bodies, yelling, suicide (by cop)

Let me know if I missed anything!

Word count: 1794

A/N: As promised, here is the last chapter of Totk. I'm so proud of this and seeing everyone who reads it has made me infinitely happy. Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you enjoy the super long last chapter!

“We’ve got ‘em. They’re at a bank downtown, holding everyone inside hostage. If we hurry we can diffuse it before it gets too bad,” I said, leaning on the doorframe to Roman’s office. He quickly got up, following me out of the station and to the car. We mixed in with the flood of police cars exiting the precinct, heading downtown to finally catch those maniacs.

“What have we got so far?” Roman asked on our way up there. I kept my attention on the road, following the back end of the police car in front of me.

“They planned out a bank robbery, a big one at that. I won’t be surprised if this is their last, if I’m being honest with ya. We profiled that they would stop at nothing to get away with it and if that means suicide by cop then so be it. They’ve been escalating for a few months now so keep your eyes open. This one is gonna be big,” I said. We turned the final corner, both of us practically jumping out of the car. I found one of the first responding officers, asking what the current situation is.

“So far, they’ve locked the door from the inside with chains and sealed off all the exits. We counted around 50 to 60 hostages inside. They moved them to the middle of the building but that’s all we know so far,” he said. He got a call over his walkie talkie, stepping way to answer it. I turned to Roman, sighing and running a hand down my face.

“It’s worse than I thought. They’re not gonna let those hostages live,” I said. Roman tiled his head like a puppy in confusion. Dammit, why does he have to be so cute?! Virgil, not now.

“Why do you say that?” he asked.

“Because, Roman, they’re psychopaths. They feel no empathy. No remorse for anything they’ve ever done. They don’t care about those people and they don’t care about the money. They’re only doing this because you need money to survive, no other reason. They aren’t going to let those people go, Roman. I know it,” I said, gesturing to the door. I started pacing, trying to figure out the best tactic to cool down the situation. None of them were good options.

“We need to set up communications. It’s the only thing I can think of. We need to get in their heads somehow. You! Yeah, you. Can you help me set this up?” I ask, calling out to a random officer. He nodded and came over to where me and Roman were trying to set up the communications operation. “Thank you….?”

“Oh, Officer Heart. But you can call me Patton,” the officer said, the cheery character extending a hand for me to take. I don’t do handshakes so Roman stepped in, shaking the man’s hand.

“I’m Roman and this grumpy man is Virgil,” he said. I glared at him, elbowing him in the side.

“Ow! Hey, what was that for!?” he said, grabbing his side. Patton just snickered, hooking up a few wires onto the recorder and phone.

“You know what it was for, Princey, don’t act dumb,” I said, turning back to the task at hand.

“‘Princey’?” Patton asked, raising an eyebrow. Me and Roman both answered at the same time.

“It’s what I call this idiot.”

“It’s his special nickname for me.”

I let out a huff of air as Patton giggled, hooking in the last wire. I pressed the power button and the line went live.

“Okay, I’m gonna need you two to be quiet, okay?” I said. The both nodded and I punched in the number for the bank, picking up the phone and putting it to my ear. I heard it ring;

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Bingo.

“Eh? What d’you want?” a nasally voice sounded from the other end. It took all my willpower not to grimace.

“Who is this?” I asked. It's best to set the scene first before getting into negotiations.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Virgil. Detective Virgil.”

“Ooh, fancy. So, Detective Virgil, what brings you here this fine day?” the obnoxious voice sounded from the other end. I’m going to have a headache by the end of this.

“Oh, you know, just a couple of serial killers robbing a bank. The usual.” A shrill laugh rangs over the phone, making me pull the phone away from my ear to save my eardrums. “You never answered my question. Who is this?”

“Remus Prince at your service,” he said. That name made me pause. It was...familiar somehow. Remus, Remus, Remus. Prince. Remus Prince. Roman Prince.

Oh. My. God.

It’s Roman’s twin brother.

Oh no.

“Do you plan on coming out anytime soon?” I asked. I had to keep my cool and try not to freak out that my crush’s partner’s lost brother is currently holding a bank hostage with his psychopathic boyfriend.

“Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p’. I sighed. ‘This is going to be a long conversation.’

“Then tell me, Remus, why the bank robbery? Why now?”

“Well, I was getting quite bored and thought a good ol’ bank heist would do the trick.”

"So you don’t have any friends to visit?”

“Friends? HA! I haven’t had a friend in years,” the eccentric man laughed.

“Well I’m sure it’s hard to make friends when you murder them.”

“That was rude,” Remus pouted.

“So is murder,” I said, deadpan. “How do you plan on getting out of there? We’ve got all the exits covered, front and back.”

“I’m sure Logan will think of something. He always does.”

“So Logan is the other one? How long ha-”

“Hang on there sunshine, gimme a moment.” he interrupted. The line went silent for a second, the sound of distant yelling coming through on the other side. There was a gunshot, then another, and another; the sound echoing off the concrete walls. Several officers shouted, trying to advance forward to bust into the building. That would only panic them, making them shoot at random and kill more people than necessary.

“DON’T MOVE IN!!” I yelled, commanding the officers to take a step back. I put the phone to my ear once more.

“I had to take care of something. I’m sorry, you were saying?” Remus said nonchalantly. I wondered just how many people he’s killed in his lifetime for this to be normal. I didn’t like that thought very much.

“How long have you two known each other? You and Logan I mean,” I ask. I hear a humming noise come from the other end, indicating that he was thinking.

“About three years now,” he responded.

“So you haven’t seen anyone except him for three years?” I asked.

“Nope!” he said, popping the ‘p’ once again. “And I’m not complaining either. I mean...have you seen that man?”

“Not even your brother?” I asked. The line went deathly silent; so much so that I thought he had hung up. The light on the monitor proved me otherwise though, as well as the burst of gunshots that came from inside. I heard the phone disconnect and I slammed the phone down in anger.

“Dammit! We almost had him,” I yelled. I started pacing again, trying to work away the uneasy feeling in my stomach.

“What happened? Why were there so many gunshots?” Roman asked, looking more confused than concerned.

“I must have struck a nerve. We need to move in soon or else this will end more bloody than we hope for,” I said. I tried to walk past Roman but he held an arm out, effectively stopping me in my tracks.

“Hey, are you good?” he asked, voice having dropped to almost a whisper. It was sweet how much he cares. If we weren’t in a hostage situation right now I probably would have finally confessed.

“Yeah, I’m good. We just need to get them out of there,” I said, walking past him and to the line of officers.

They had formed a barricade around the entrance of the bank, many of them already aiming their guns at the glass doors. I made my way over to them, joining in the line and aiming my gun as well. A minute or two later, Roman joined me, Patton following closely behind. I was getting ready to give the command for S.W.A.T to enter when two figures approached the door, both carrying guns, one undid the chains on the door while the other pushed the door open, both of them aiming their guns at us.

I held up the signal for ‘hold fire’, analysing the two psychopaths that now stood in front of us. One officer yelled for them to put their guns down, both of them ignoring the command. They were almost in a daze, ignoring the outside world. The same officer warned them, saying that they would open fire. Again, they didn’t comply. Instead, they made their way closer to one another, guns still aimed at the line of officers. Their lips collided with one another, fingers pulling the trigger and opening fire. I ducked behind part of the barricade, shielding myself from the incoming bullets. They were doing it. They were actually doing it.

They were going to die.

I took a breath and peeked around the barricade, watching as the two serial killers were almost riddled with bullets. Still, the two stayed locked in a kiss, holding on to each other. In their last moments, they pulled apart, both whispering something that was lost to time. Then, their bodies fell to the ground in a pool of blood, limp and growing cold.

I never forgot that day. The day two lovers were caught in the whirlwind of bullets, how their love faded just like the life from their eyes. The day dozens of bodies are hauled out of that bank, their loved ones weeping at the sight. The final look they gave us before their bodies were torn to shreds. It was peaceful almost, like they had prepared for this since the moment they met. I suppose they had; having a plan in case things went wrong. It wasn’t just me that was haunted by that day. Roman almost broke down when he found out it was his brother, often visiting the crime scene and replaying the last moments of his lost brother’s life. I found him coming to my apartment almost every day, sobbing and almost collapsing from exhaustion. It was a sad day, one that ruined too many lives to count. It did help me realize something, something that I never forgot in the many years to come.

People really will do anything for love.

Taglist:

@whattheremus @falsemood @braingoburr @midnightstorm-underthe-moon @martini46

17 notes · View notes

agerestorybits · 3 years

Text

I’m not little I swear!

Roman was laying on his stomach on the floor coloring as disney music played in the background. His door left open in case anyone needed him. He looked up when he heard a knock on the door frame. Virgil stood there more, awkward than normal.

Roman smiled, “What brings you to my domain dark night?” Roman asked, shifting so he was sitting up.

Virgil stepped in hands in his hoodie pockets. “I...noticed that you...Well.” Virgil gestured to the coloring book on the floor.

“And? Would you like to join me?” Roman asked, already summoning a second coloring book for Virgil. Nightmare before Christmas themed.

Virgil relaxed a little, “Yeah. I would. Thanks.” He sat down on the floor and pulled out a crayon from the pile on the floor.

Roman went back to coloring. They both worked in silence for a while before Virgil spoke up. “Just so you know..Um..I am too.”

Roman looked up at him. Virgil glanced at the coloring book again. What? An artist? Why didn’t he just say that? Was he embarrassed? Scared Roman would be mad at him. Roman smiles reassuringly, “Trust me when I say there is no problem with that. If anyone gives you any grief about it they’ll have me to mess with.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say as Virgil smiled a bit. “Thanks.” They went back to coloring. After a half hour Virgil finished his picture and stood. “We should do this again sometime.”

“Indeed!” Roman agreed. “The sooner the better!”

Virgil shifted on his feet, “So...you don’t mind if I tell Logan and Patton about..this? Do you? I mean if you want to tell them yourself-”

“I would never tell them something if you wanted me to keep it secret.” Roman promised. Why Virgil was making such a big deal about coloring he had no idea. He didn’t really understand Virgil that much but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to support him. “Tell they if you want. Do I need to be there for you?”

Virgil smiled again, “nah. It’s cool. I’ve got it….thanks.”

“Well good luck!” Roman said.

“I might need it.” Virgil muttered as he left. Roman rolled his eyes, Virgil could be so over dramatic. And that was coming from him!

Roman went back to coloring.

---

Virgil took a breath before blurting it out. “I age regress.” Patton and Logan looked at him. “So does Roman!” He added before they could say anything.

“Oooookay?” Patton said. “What’s that?”

Logan gave a brief explanation. “In all honesty I’m not surprised about Roman.”

“It does make sense.” Patton agreed.

“Yeah.” Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, “So um..Alright. I was wondering if you weren’t too weird out by this-”

“Not at all.” Logan said.

“Full support kiddo!” Patton added.

“Thanks...Would one or both. I’m not going to pick..And if you don’t want to I won’t hold it against you or anything! I just..”

“Virgil.” Logan said, “Breath.”

“Will you be my caregiver….ers?” He asked in a small voice.

“Of course!” Patton said. He turned to Logan. “What is that?”

“Patton don’t agree to things you don’t know about.” Logan said before giving an explanation.

Patton frowned, “I thought I was already taking care of you.”

“I mean. While I’m little.” Virgil clarified.

“Well duh! I’m not going to stop just because you need a LITTLE extra help!” Patton said brightly.

“I agree to help.” Logan said.

Virgil smiled. This was going better than he expected.

---

Roman was...confused. He wasn’t going to say anything in case he insulted Virgil but...He didn find it weird that he was wandering around in the middle of the day in a onesie with a..was that a pacifier????

Even stranger was Logan and Patton took it in stride and even seemed to think that Roman wanted to do that too.

Was this a prank? A joke he didn’t get? Was he supposed to comment on it?

“Are you sure you don’t want to try a paci?” Patton asked.

“Err...no thanks pat.” Roman said holding up a hand.

“Patton, he might not be little right now.” Logan said.

Little??? What?? “Alright what is going on? Am I missing something? I feel like I’m missing something.” Roman said.

“You don’t have to hide it. Virgil told us!” Patton said.

“It wasn’t like you were trying that hard to hide it.” Logan said.

“Hide what?” Roman asked. Was this about the art thing? What did that have to do with dressing in a onesie?

“About your age regression.” Patton said.

“My...what?” Logan and Patton glanced at each other.

“You really don’t need to hide it.” Logan assured him. “As you can see we have already accepted Virgil for it. We aren’t going to judge you.”

“We can even take care of you too if you want!” Patton said excitedly. “Oh! You two could have playdates!”

“Back up. What is age regression? And Virgil said I did that?” Roman said. He wasn’t going to argue with Virgil….Yet.

Logan gave him an in depth description of age regression which raised more questions than it answered.

Why did Virgil think he age regressed? Did he age regress and not know? No he was very sure that he didn’t age regress. He just liked to do kid activities. That wasn’t the same thing!

Roman shook his head, “I don’t age regress.”

Patton crossed his arms, “Now Roman lying isn’t a good habit.”

Roman blinked in surprise. “I’m not lying??”

“Do you need to go in time out?”

Roman froze. WHAT?

“Alright. Call me when you aren’t acting crazy.” He said leaving.

“Roman!”

He kept walking. He wasn’t watching where he was going; he was just getting out of a situation that was crazier than he liked.

Speaking of crazy.

Remus looked up as Roman entered the Dark side common rooms. He was hanging upside down over the back of the couch eating a confetti. “Oh. What are you doing here?” He’s mouth is full of colorful paper.

Roman groaned and collapsed on the couch next to his brother. “I just had the strangest conversation.” He threw himself into the story of what just happened as Remus half listened but paid more attention the more Roman talked about…

“Little space! I mean what even is that??”

Remus was silent for a solid minute. “I mean...I do that.”

“You do?” Roman asked.

“Yeah! I mean.” Remus flipped off the couch onto the floor then jumped to his feet, spilling the confetti in the process. “It’s great! No filter! No worries about anything!”

“Isn’t that you normally?” Roman asked.

“Well… I mean I’m a bit more...PG when it happens but other than that….yeah.” Remus said before offering Roman some of the small amount of confetti that remained in the bag. “Want some.”

“No thanks. So if you regress….Do you have someone who watches you? Like..a caregiver?”

Remus’ face dropped. “I asked Janus but...turns out I’m a ‘bit much’ for him. So...no.”

“Oh.” Roman frowned. Thinking through his offer. “Well Logan and Patton seem to want someone else to take care of.”

Remus snorted and threw himself down on the couch again. “You’re kidding right? There’s no way they would watch me. No one would.”

“I would.” WHY DID HE SAY THAT? He almost took it back but, The way Remus’ face lit up… He had to try.

“Really?” Remus said almost bouncing.

“I mean. I’ll try.” Roman said.

“Good enough!” Remus said. “I’ll see you in a couple hours! I gotta get in my head space!” He said running off.

Roman watched him go, a sinking feeling that he got himself in something he had no idea how to handle sinking in.

---

Remus showed up at Roman’s door not wearing a onesie like Roman thought he might, but a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that he clearly made himself that was a mix of tye-dye and gory images with stains that looked like real blood. He had a stuffed octopus that was looking worse for the wear and a paci on a clip.

“Hihi!” He said moving past Roman into the room. Roman closed the door.

“Hi? So what do I do?”

“You watch me.” Remus said. “Duh.” His voice was higher...more kid like. Which made sense.

“Alright. So you want to do something?” Roman asked.

“Mmmmm I dunno.” Remus said putting the octopus on Roman’s bed.

“Does he have a name?” Roman asked.

“Yeah! Cephy!” Remus said bouncing. “He collects skulls!”

“Really?” Roman asked, playing along.

Remus nodded clearly having fun that someone was so interested in his stuffed friend. “He eats all the bones cept the skulls! Those he pol-....pol..”

“Polishes?”

“Yeah! Shiny and stuff.” Remus said waving his hands as he talked.

Roman looked over Cephy. “Mmm. He’s looking a little rough. Do you want me to patch him up?”

“Yes! We can make a octopus hospitel!” Remus said grabbing Cephy and shoving him into Roman’s hands. “I’ll be the mad doctor and you can be the real doctor who does the...surge- a- ge!”

“Surgery.” Roman said.

“Yeah! Dat!” Remus said beaming.

Roman had to smile too. Remus was just..lacking a better word...cute like this. Janus was missing out thinking that Remus was ‘too much’ to handle.

Roman sewed up Cephy and put a little magic in him to make him softer again. Remus was thrilled he watched the whole time asking questions about what Roman was doing and talking about other things that Cephy liked to do.

“-and then bam! Dead!” Remus fell over onto Roman’s bed.

“Oh dear.” Roman said half listening to the story half focusing on the stuffie in his hands. He needed to put the finishing touch on. A spell that made it so Cephy didn’t get torn up again.

“There! All done!” Remus jumped up and grabbed his stuffed friend.

“Cephy! You’re alright! You lived Surge-a-ge!” Remus said hugging him. Roman didn’t bother correcting him. He was going to keep messing words up. As long as Roman got the gist of it he didn’t mind.

Remus looked at Roman suddenly, “I’m hunge.”

“Oh. Well it is getting late isn’t it? We should both get some dinner.” Roman said stand and without thinking about it took Remus’ hand and led them to the kitchen. By late it was LATE. Almost midnight.

Roman was kind of glad no one else was awake. He didn’t want to face Patton and Logan yet. Nor confront Virgil about saying he was little when he wasn’t.

He made eggs which was the first thing that Remus suggested that was edible. And toast. With jam….and juice.

Ok so he made breakfast at midnight. Remus didn’t have a problem with it. He even tried to feed Cephy some.

“Done!” Remus said, pushing his plate away. “Now we play something else?”

“I don’t think so you little gremlin, It’s bedtime.” Roman said.

Wait...did he just call remus a gremlin? Shit! He looked at Remus closely but the only thing he was upset about was having to go to bed.

“Ugh! But I wanna stay… stay…’yawn’ up!” Remus said before yawning a second time.

“Nope. Bedtime. Gremlin.” Roman said running with the nickname. Remus grumbled but agreed.

“Carry me?” He muttered. Roman picked him up and made sure he still had Cephy before taking him and tucking them both in bed.

“Goodnight gremlin.” Roman said, flipping off the lights.

“Night night.” Remus muttered half asleep.

Roman turned around and jumped as he was met with Janus. “Gah!”

“You did good today.” Janus said. “Watching him.”

“I don’t get why you think he’s too much to be honest.” Roman said a little tense.

Janus laughed, “You haven’t seen his temper tantrum yet….besides I’m not very partenal….Not like you it seems.”

“Thank you?”

“Good luck Roman.” Janus said, turning, “You’re going to need it.”

---

Roman sat reading from a storybook as Remus played on the floor half listening. He noticed Janus out of the corner of his eye reading his own book. Only Janus hadn’t turned any pages in almost twenty minutes giving Roman the sneaking suspicion that he was listening. He read just slightly louder and kept an eye out for any movement from Janus.

Sure enough Janus closed his book after a few minutes and set it aside but didn’t get up and leave. Instead he just closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair farther. Roman’s smile widened as he continued reading.

“It’s lunch time.” Remus reminded him. Roman closed the book and saw Janus open his eyes and caught Roman watching him. Janus wordlessly got up and left.

“Yeah. Let’s get you some food.” Roman said, taking Remus’ hand and taking him to the kitchen.

Janus had been hanging around Remus and Roman when a lot. More than Roman expected of him. He had never really thought of Janus as being sociable but it was clear that he was.

Roman couldn’t stop thinking about Janus’...warning? It felt like a warning. Like something was going to happen that he would NEED luck for. But he had no idea what. Were Patton and Logan going to become even more intolerable?

They were trying to get him to regress around Virgil and didn’t believe him when he said that he didn’t regress. They firmly believed he was just being shy about it? Why would he be? It didn’t make sense to him but it seemed to make some kind of sense to them since they would not drop it!

He sighed. Remus looked up at him from his lunch. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing you need to worry about gremlin.” Roman said, brushing Remus’ hair out of his face.

Remus hummed, Roman could tell by the look in his eyes that he was snapping out of his younger headspace. “Roman.”

“It’s nothing!...Really! Just...you know. Them.” Roman said, waving his hand. At least for the most part Virgil seemed to believe that he didn’t regress. But Patton and Logan just would not let it go.

“Do I need to bust some heads?” Remus asked.

“No.” Roman rolled his eyes. He sat down and crossed his arms. He looked towards the hallway that Janus had disappeared down before leaning forward on the table. “Do you now what’s up with Janus?”

“Did he say something to you?” Remus asked confused.

“Well...no. I just thought it was weird that he was hanging out so much when you’re regressed when he thought you were ‘too much to handle’.” Roman said using finger quotations.

“Well he’s not handling me is he? That’s you!” Remus said. “Who is doing a good job by the way.” He muttered the second half before taking a quick bite.

Roman blinked at the praise. Remus was begrudging to give him any compliments when he was bigger due to their dumb slibing ravalry they had going on.

“Still…”

“If he didn’t say anything he’s fine! He’ll say something if he has a problem!” Remus said.

Roman raised an eyebrow. “Really? The master of lies and secrets is going to be completely open about his problems?”

“Yeah...why not?” Remus asked. “I mean you’re part of the group now.”

“The group?”

“One of us! You spend more down here than with the others at this point!” Remus said a bit happy about it.

Roman froze. He….he did. Didn’t he? He just wanted to avoid them from trying to baby him and he liked taking care of Remus and talking with Janus and-

He stood up so fast he made Remus jump at the sudden action. “I need to go talk to them!”

Remus waved him off. “Good luck.”

Roman paused. Why did they both think he needed luck so much?

----

He ran into Virgil first. Who for the most part was regretful that he jumped to a conclusion and got Roman into this mess.

“Are you ok? You looked stressed out.” Virgil said.

“Fine.” Roman said.

“Right. Because you’re known for your one word answers.” Virgil crossed his arms.

“Alright so I’m not feeling my best at the moment.” Roman said, throwing a hand in the air.

“Any way I can help?” Virgil asked.

“Oh I think you’ve done enough!” Roman snapped. Virgil flinched. Roman’s anger died down. “Sorry. You didn’t know this would happen.”

“Still...I should made sure I knew for sure what was going on first before-”

“Breath. It’s fine. I’m sure they’ll give up on me ‘regressing’ any day now.” Roman said, patting Virgil’s upper arm. “Hopefully.” He muttered as he moved past Virgil.

He found Patton and Logan in the common room. “Oh hey! You’re back!”

“Yep!”

“Are you feeling alright?” Logan frowned.

Roman took a breath. “I need you two to drop this whole me regressing thing.”

Patton and Logan glanced at each other. “Are..are you sure?”

“Very.” Roman said flatly.

Patton nodded to himself. Logan stood up, “Alright. It’s your choice.”

Roman was feeling hopeful that he had gotten through to them. Then Patton spoke, “If you ever change your mind about doing it alone we’ll be here.” Roman groaned.

Well...It was better than nothing.

---

While they did drop trying to get him to regress around them. They were checking to make sure he was regressing on his own and suggested he go regress to get rid of some stress when he was tense. He finally just agreed to going somewhere else, (them taking this as him going to regress) just so he didn’t have to bother with it.

He stormed into the dark commons and froze as he saw Remus regressed...with Janus. It was clear from his pacifier and childlike outfit that he was little too. Unless this was some weird joke he was missing out on.

“Janus?!?” He accidentally yelled.

Janus and Remus both jumped. Janus looked up terrified, tears appearing in his eyes. Roman’s caregiving instincts kicked in. He dropped down next to Janus and quickly went about calming him.

“Hey. No it’s ok. See? Everything is fine.” Roman said softly.

Janus stared at him with wide eyes. He slowly reached out and touched Roman’s face before reaching out with both arms. Roman pulled him into his lap. Janus cuddled up as close as he could to Roman’s chest.

Remus whined, “Hey!” He crawled over and Roman hugged him to his side. Remus wasn’t that cuddly but he must have been a bit jealous of Janus at the moment.

Oh boy. Maybe this is what he needs luck for.

---

Janus stopped regressing as Roman served them supper. He started shifting in his chair awkwardly and clearly wanted to leave.

“Hey.” Roman said gently. “We don’t have to talk about it now if you don’t want to. I can pretend it never happened if you want.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say as Janus relaxed a bit. He sat back. “No..This needs to be addressed.”

Roman sat down. “Alright.”

Janus stared at his plate of food, across from him Remus was eating quickly. His legs kicking back and forth. Those his eyes said he was older than he was acting.

Janus was quiet for a while before speaking. “I can’t handle Remus’ regression because I regress too.”

Roman nodded. “It causes it?”

Janus nodded. He looked up at Roman. “So….”

“If you want I can watch both of you at the same time. It’s not too much.” Roman couldn’t really promise that but today had gone well so why not at least try?

Janus stared at Roman for a solid minute before speaking. “I’d like that.”

Roman smiled. Remus cheered. “Little friend!” Roman and Janus both smiled at that. “Maybe Virgil could join us for a playdate!” Janus’ smile froze.

Roman held his breath for Janus’ reaction. After a second Janus unfroze and nodded, “Worth a shot.”

---

Setting up the playdate was more work than he thought. Patton was sure that having Remus around a regressed Virgil would be bad for him. “I just don’t want him getting hurt!”

Roman assured him that he had been watching Remus, (“Like a big brother!” Patton said completely blowing over how Roman said he was Remus’ caregiver) and that he wouldn’t hurt Virgil or Janus.

Logan was the one who agreed. “We’ll both be there. We can watch them.”

“I’m so proud of you for doing this!” Patton told him. He was almost sure that Patton thought he was finally going to regress around them.

He just smiled tightly and moved on with setting everything up. Virgil was genuinely excited about it. While Remus and Janus had playdates together before, Virgil never had. So while he was nervous about it, he was also ready to play.

Roman held Janus and Remus’ hands as he took them to light side common room where there was a pillow fort set up, snacks were being made fresh in the kitchen and the t.v was set up for movies. Of course there were toys in a chest in the back of the pillow fort due to the fact that the t.v was most likely just going to be background noise.

Virgil was waiting in the pillow fort. They had decided before to have them all small before getting them together in case an argument broke out and they couldn’t regress.

Janus surprised all of them by running over as soon as he saw Virgil and hugging him. Remus beamed and ran over to join the hug. Roman smiled at them.

“Do you want to go join in kiddo?” Patton asked.

Roman shook his head, “I’ve got to finish up the snacks so-”

“Pfft! You don’t need to worry about that!” Patton said. “Logan and I have that! Just go play!”

“I’m here to watch them. Not play.” Roman said firmly.

“You don’t have to.” Logan said. “We are more than capable of watching all four of you.”

Roman grit his teeth. “I am not regressing.”

Patton gave him that stern look that said he wanted him to stop acting and just go along with it. Roman didn’t back down. He walked over and sat on the couch so he could keep an eye on Remus and Janus.

Virgil waved to him.

Roman relaxed a little. He could get through this.

---

He could not get through this! He was holding himself back from yelling at Patton, “I do not regress.” He said as he fixed Janus’ paci clip.

“You don’t have to hide it! We know!” Patton said. “I thought we got past this!”

“You are not listening to me! Neither of you are!” Roman snapped.

Logan frowned. Janus tugged on Roman’s sleeve. He was getting upset at all the angry faces. Roman picked him up. “It’s ok.” He said soothing him.

He took a breath. He can do this. This is fine.

Until Patton tried to take Janus from him with a quick you don’t need to do that. “Oh! I think I do!”

Janus started crying and Roman felt even worse. This isn’t how he wanted tonight to go. He walked into the other room with Janus to calm him down.

“You two really suck ass you know that right?” Remus said clearly not regressed anymore. Neither was Virgil who was glaring at them.

“I told you that I was wrong and he doesn’t regress! Why can’t you get that?”

“Virgil.” Patton said. “Then why does he know so much about it?”

“He doesn’t regress.” Remus said firmly. “He takes care of me when I’m regressed!”

“Well maybe if he didn’t have to he could regress! Maybe he’s so busy dealing with you that he doesn’t!” Patton argued.

Logan stepped between them before Remus could punch Patton. “Patton I think they are telling the truth. We were wrong about Roman regressing.”

“What? But..You said that-”

“And I was wrong.” Logan said.

Patton deflated. “Oh….oh no.”

“We need to apologize.” Logan said.

Patton nodded.

Roman came back in with a sleeping Janus. “Remus are you ready to go?”

“In a minute. These two have something to say to you.” Remus said.

“We’re sorry.” Logan said.

Roman’s eyebrows shot up. “I...what?”

“We didn’t believe you...we didn’t trust you to tell us the truth. And we’re sorry. We should have listened to you.” Patton said.

Roman smiled, “Thank you. Remus?”

“Yeah yeah. Time to go.” Remus said walking over and taking Janus from Roman. “I’ll get him tucked into bed. You can handle this.”

Roman nodded. Remus smiled at his brother and winked before leaving.

They talked for a while. Both of them were really listening to Roman about how he wasn’t a regressor he was a caregiver.

“That….makes more sense.” Logan said.

“It suits you.” Virgil said.

Roman smiled. “Thank you. I’ve found that I have quite the talent for it.”

Patton shifted, “Roman...I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright Patton. I forgive you. You saw what you wanted to see.” Roman said. Roman looked at Virgil, “Not like I haven’t done that before. The important thing is moving past it.”

“That’s….good advice.” Virgil said surprised.

Roman looked at him offended. “I do have good ideas you know!”

“And we promise we’ll listen to them.” Patton said. “To you.”

Roman nodded. Guess he didn’t need luck after all. He just needed help from people he cared about. And who cared about him.

“Oh stop it! I can almost hear you being sappy!” Virgil said.

“What are you talking about?” Roman said.

“You’ve got that look on your face.”

“I do not have a look! I have looks!”

“Yeah sure-”

Virgil and Roman fell into their normal banter. The awkward air that had been between them was gone. They were back to normal. Or rather a new normal.

#Little janus #little virgil #little remus #cg roman #cg logan #cg patton

56 notes · View notes

averykedavra · 4 years

Text

Masterpost

This is a list of all my fanfictions and drabbles, loosely categorized by category, length, and pairing! You can also find them under the tag #averywrites. Feel free to prompt me if you want to see me write something! My Ao3 account is Avery_Kedavra.

Multichapter Fics:

Valley of the Dolls: Platonic DLAMPR. In progress. When Roman becomes a Dark Side, Remus is thrilled to have his brother around. But soon it becomes clear that without Creativity, everyone in the Mindscape is falling apart.

Leave No Trace: Romantic Moceit. Completed at 198k. Patton, his maybe-enemy Janus, and his best friend Virgil journey through a magical forest to rescue their friends from the dragons.

A Conversation I Overheard: Romantic LAMP. In progress. Roman attempts to support his friends’ new relationship, but struggles to get past his own feelings.

Events:

Soulmate September: A oneshot for each day, different pairings and different ways of finding your soulmate.

Whumptober: A oneshot for each day, different AUs and different hurt/comfort prompts (or just hurt, it depends!)

Holiday Exchanges: Yes, I entered enough to make a separate masterlist. Don’t judge me.

Oneshots:

Romantic:

LAMP:

Too Far Gone: Human AU. 16K words. Logan plays matchmaker for his three oblivious best friends. Then he realizes he doesn’t just see them as friends.

Logince:

Couldn’t Care Less: 4K words. Logan reluctantly agrees to accompany Roman on a quest in the Imagination, but after Roman gets hurt, Logan blames himself.

If Only To Say You’re Mine: Human AU. 2K words. Roman calls Logan late at night under the guise of conversation, but soon it’s clear that something else is going on.

Prinxiety:

Wherever We Are (It Feels Like Home): 8K words. When Virgil messes up and tries to apologize to Roman, Roman thinks something very different is going on--and they learn they might have some things to figure out.

Logicality:

Would You Be So Kind: Human AU. 4K words. Patton finally asks out his crush, but it doesn’t go as planned.

Loceit:

Enjoy This As Much As I Do: Human AU. 1.4K words. Logan doesn’t understand his feelings for Janus, but for once, he’s content with leaving it unknown. (Based off an AU by @/coconut-cluster.)

‘Cause It’s All About You: Human AU. 2K words. Janus might have made a mistake--but if he pretends everything’s fine, maybe they can forget about it. (Based off an AU by @/coconut-cluster.)

Dance With Losing It All: Spies AU. 3K words. After Janus gets hurt, Logan’s left struggling to help. (Based off a oneshot by @/coconut-cluster.)

Dukeceit:

Dry Ice: Human AU. 1.7K words. Remus has a terrible idea and Janus does his best to stop him.

Desleep:

The Days We’ve Been Waiting For: Human AU. 1K words. Remy attempts to cook breakfast for Janus on their anniversary.

Queerplatonic:

Dukeceit:

Will You Be There To Follow: Human AU. 3K words. Remus and Janus debate the merits of possible pets.

Platonic:

DLAMPR or DLAMPRT:

Make It Your Own: 3.9K words. Songfic of Streaks by ANIMA! The other Sides write stories but never Logan never participates. The reason why is complicated.

Come and Save My Day: 3K words. Since the last video, Roman hasn’t left the Imagination. When his brother drags him out, he receives the last thing he expected.

All I Want is Serenity: 13K words. Roman knows he needs to be perfect, but his persona is slipping, and he knows the other Sides will hate him when they find out how weak he really is.

Ready as I’ll Ever Be: 5.5k words. Post-FWSA. Roman and Virgil are excited about Thomas’ new date, but the other Sides raise some concerns.

DLAMP:

Aftermath: 2K words. Immediately after Putting Others First, Virgil deals with the fallout.

A Vision With Nowhere To Go: 1.7K words. Roman gathers the other Sides for assistance with picking his skirt.

LAMP:

Only Logical: 9K words. When Thomas is, once again, incapacitated due to his emotions, Logan takes the others to his room so they’ll finally listen to him.

Roceit:

Set All My Regrets on Fire: 10k words. Roman wants to apologize. Janus wants to explain. It's a shame neither of them can work up the courage to say hello.

Logince:

Our Bodies Made of Stardust: Human AU. 10K words. When Logan was six, he broke his arm trying to touch the stars. This is how he finally managed, twelve years later.

Logicality:

I Keep To Myself (I Want To Break Through): 10k words. Thomas worries that pursuing a relationship with Nico would be a huge mistake. When Logan and Patton try to help, they learn there’s something deeper going on.

Prinxiety:

Babysitters: Human AU. 600 words. After Roman and Virgil lose the kids they’re babysitting, they reluctantly team up to track them down.

Dukeceit:

No Longer Will You Deceive Yourself: 2K words. Remus knows Janus is going to leave. He just wishes Janus would get it over with.

Analogical:

Leap in the Dark: High school AU. 2K words. The last thing Virgil wants to do is talk on stage. But if he doesn’t, Logan has to, and Logan also doesn’t want to be seen.

Creativitwins:

Ever Slightly Out Of Reach: Ghost AU. 8K words. Roman doesn’t want to leave the house. Remus makes him a map, so he won’t get lost while Remus is gone. (Based off an AU by @/fanartfunart.)

No Pairings:

Scary: 500 words. Just a quick Remus angst drabble.

Honestly: 1.2k words. Virgil’s thoughts during Flirting With Social Anxiety.

Theories:

Paranoia Theory: Written on 4/22/20. Why Deceit taunts Virgil about his name in SvS. (Edit on 3/28/21: I should have written this earlier, but this theory wasn’t okay. ‘Paranoia’ headcanons misrepresent a serious symptom and experience of mental illness, and I was ignorant of that. I’m leaving the post up for completeness, but please know that I sincerely apologize and no longer stand by this theory.)

Orange Side Theory: Written on 5/5/20. My take on the possibility of Logan’s Dark Side.

Analyses and Metas:

SvS Analysis: My analysis of Selfishness v. Selflessness.

ATHD Analysis: My analysis of Are There Healthy Distractions.

Logan’s Apologies Analysis: How Logan apologizes in LNTAO and how it reflects his character.

Analysis of ‘You’re a Cad’ and Janus: An (over)analysis of the song You’re A Cad and Janus’ relationships with Virgil and Roman.

Headcanons:

“Tells” Headcanon: When one of the Sides is feeling down, they have a system to let the others know.

Pets Headcanon: What the Sides’ pets are and why.

#masterpost

198 notes · View notes

teacupfulofstarshine · 4 years

Text

nothing’s quite as sweet as you

summary: in a world where soulmates exist, patton has waited his whole life to meet the person the universe has designated as his. he can't wait to make their soul recipe together and feed each other the first bite. but in the meantime, he'll settle for running his bakery and hoping.

(OR: an absurdly fluffy royality soulmate!au)

a/n: for @notveryglittery, the queen of all things royality

cw: mild angst mention

wordcount: 3.9k

read it on ao3!

“Patton? Sweetheart, what are you doing?”

Diana leans into the bathroom to see one of her five-year-old twins with his sleeves rolled up, soaking the front of his overalls as he tries to scrub his arm with a sopping wet washcloth. She quickly scoops him up, wringing the washcloth out and draping it over the side of the tub.

“Did you get paint on you again, silly?” She lifts his arm to see what he’d been scrubbing at, revealing a red, rubbed-raw forearm with bright blue lettering on it. “I don’t understand, Patty-cake, did you spill something on your soulmark?”

“I don’t wanna soulmark anymore, Mama,” Patton pouts, trying to scratch at his arm. Diana quickly catches his hand in one of hers, confused.

“Why not, baby?”

“Vee doesn’ have one! He doesn’ have a soulmate, an’ I don’ wanna soulmate if he doesn’t have one!” Patton’s eyes are watering behind his big, round glasses, and Diana smiles softly. She brushes his curly bangs aside to kiss his forehead.

“Why don’t you go and put on some dry clothes, baby, and then meet me, Virgil, and Mother in the living room, okay?”

“Okay . . .”

When Patton comes back, changed into a flowy skirt to accompany his Disney t-shirt, Diana has Virgil pulled onto her lap and Marie. Patton scrambles up onto the couch and pats Marie’s thighs. “Can I sit in your lap, Mother?”

“Of course, darling.” She wraps her arms around his middle and hugs him close. “Your Mama tells me that you were trying to scrub your soulmark off in the bathroom today.”

“I don’ wanna have a soulmate if Virge doesn’ have a soulmate! He’s my twin, we have to be the same!”

Marie, too, begins to laughs. “Mother, you can’t laugh! Virge doesn’ have a soulmate!” Patton cries, clearly distressed. “So I can’t have one either, I don’t wan’ him to be alone!”

“I am not laughing at you, my baby. You are admirable for wanting Virgil to not be alone. I am laughing because despite your admirable sentiments, you are mistaken. Virgil does have a soulmate.”

“What?”

Virgil pushes up his hoodie sleeve in confusion, looking at his forearms. “But I don’ have a mark . . .”

“I did not have a mark either, when I was born,” Marie tells him. “Your Mama did, but I did not. My arm was plain and bare, like yours is.”

Patton pulls her arms away from his waist, flipping her left arm so that it’s palm-up. There’s a recipe written on her forearm, in soft pink script that complements his Mama’s lavender soulmark. “But you have a soulmark now, Mother! And you and Mama are soulmates, right?”

“You are correct, little cake. Do you wonder why that is?”

“Yes, Mother!”

“In every soulmate pair - and it is different if there are more than two soulmates, but if there is a pair - there is one born marked and one born unmarked. When you touch your soulmate’s skin for the first time, the mark will glow, and the unmarked will receive their recipe.”

“Think about it this way, Pat - if everyone was born with a soulmark, you’d have to hold your arm up to everyone you met to try and read and see if the recipe matched! That would take so long!” Diana says.

“Yeah . . . so Virgil has a soulmate?”

“He does,” Marie tells them. “When you first approach your soulmate, there will be a smell that only the two of you can smell. It is the smell of your recipe! Once you have both halves of your recipe, you will make it together, and you will feed each other the first bite, and then you will be together forever.”

Patton grins brightly at his twin. “We both get soulmates, Virge! I’m so happy! I woulda said no to my soulmate if you didn’t have one, but I think I still woulda been sad not to have one. But you’re my brother!”

Virgil smiles back, a little more shy but no less bright. “Okay!”

*~*~*~*~*

“Have you found them yet?” Patton asks eagerly, bouncing next to his twin. Virgil is rummaging through his locker, which he’s somehow already managed to turn into a disaster. Patton’s locker, right next to his, is decorated with pictures of the two of them and their moms and puppies and all kinds of other things.

“No, Patty, but it’s only the first day,” Virgil says softly, shoving a sketchbook into his backpack. “We have a lot of time to find them.”

“I know, but Mama and Mother met in high school, and wouldn’t it be so cool if we could find ours in high school too? I just wanna know who they are! I wanna hold their hand and give them kisses and make our recipe together and and and -”

“I know, Pat,” Virgil laughs, slamming his locker shut. “Come on, we’re gonna be late for our first ever art class.”

Patton grins when he walks into the room, inhaling the scent of acrylic paint and glue and sharpies. He puts his messenger bag down on one of the stools, but when he turns to see Virgil, he realizes that his twin is standing in the doorway, frozen. He hurries over, sundress swishing around his knees. “Vee? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Virgil’s eyes are saucer-wide, and his hands are gripping the straps of his backpack. “Pat, can - do you - can you smell that?”

“The art room smell?”

“No,” Virgil says, and there’s a tiny smile creeping onto his face. “It - it smells sweet, Pat. Can you smell that?”

Patton breaks into a bright, sunshiney grin. “No, Vee, I sure as sugar cannot!” He bounces on his toes, sneakers squeaking against the linoleum. “You found your soulmate!”

“I haven’t found them yet , Patton, they could still be out in the hallway,” Virgil says, even though he’s still smiling. He follows Patton into the room, and as the rest of the class files in and the bell rings and the door closes behind the last girl, his eyes widen. Patton’s grin gets even wider.

“You still smell it, don’t you?” he whispers. Virgil nods, and Patton can barely stay sitting on the stool. The teacher hasn’t entered the classroom yet, so Patton eagerly sprints to the front of the room. “What are you doing?” Virgil hisses, gripping the table. Patton winks at him before knocking his fist on the chalkboard and getting everyone in the classroom to look at him.

“May I have your attention please!”

Virgil pulls his hood up and over his head in an attempt to hide his face, cheeks red, and Patton does feel a little bad about embarrassing his twin. At the same time, however, he knows Virgil, and he knows that he won’t say anything about his soulmate’s presence in the class. He will , however, be super anxious about who they are and what they think of him until he meets them, and Patton’s always been the extrovert between the two of them.

“My name’s Patton, and that’s my twin brother Virgil! Can anyone else in this class smell baked goods right now? Because he can!”

“Patton, I swear to God, stop talking,” Virgil hisses. Patton rocks back and forth, grinning, as he scans back and forth among the people in the class. The silence stretches on for almost thirty seconds, but before either twin can become fully disheartened, someone stands up.

“I, too, can perceive a distinctly saccharine aroma in the air,” he says quietly. Patton smiles, confused, before Virgil is standing up and carefully tugging his hood down, rearranging his mussed hair as he shuffles up to stand next to Patton.

“He smells it too, Pat, he smells it too he smells it too oh my God,” he mutters.

The boy approaches them, wearing black pants and a black belt and a black polo shirt with a dark blue tie. He has black shoes and glasses with square black frames that look almost exactly like the ones Patton used to wear before he broke them. Patton’s eyes are immediately drawn to the flowing, midnight-blue script on his left forearm, and he hears his brother inhale sharply next to him.

“Logan Delaney,” the boy says crisply, holding out his hand so that they can all see his soulmark. “It’s a pleasure.” He looks so serious, but when his eyes land on Virgil they soften a little.

“V - Virgil Alexander,” Virgil stammers, rolling his sleeve up and reaching for Logan’s hand. “Likewise.”

The second their hands make contact, Logan’s soulmark begins to glow. His eyes widen, and a look of almost childlike wonder crosses his face as a ribbon of bright blue light spirals around his arm and hand, turning purple as it winds around Virgil’s wrist. He gasps as the light begins to write across his arm, leaving shimmering lavender script across his forearm as his soulmark appears.

“Hello, Virgil,” Logan says. He carefully turns his hand so that he’s not shaking Virgil’s hand anymore but holding it, studying the inside of his forearm as he scans over the recipe. “I know I have said this before, but it truly is a pleasure to meet you.”

Virgil blinks in shock before curling his fingers around Logan’s, rubbing the back of his neck as he offers a soft, tentative smile. “It’s really good to meet you, too.”

*~*~*~*~*

Logan ends up accompanying them home that day, fingers laced with Virgil’s the whole time. Patton sits on the kitchen counter and teases his twin while he and Logan work together to make their recipe, thumbprint cookies featuring Logan’s favorite jam and Virgil’s favorite shortbread.

“It really is a perfect recipe for you two,” Patton sighs, reaching out to ruffle Virgil’s hair. “I can’t wait until I meet my soulmate! What do you think our recipe will be? Will it taste good? Oh, I can’t wait, I can’t wait -”

“I’m sure your soulmate will be perfect for you, Pat. They’ll be just as sappy as you, and I bet your recipe will be so sweet no one else could possibly eat it. You two will share one massive sweet tooth.”

“You think so?”

“Course, Pat. Who wouldn’t be thrilled to have you as a soulmate?”

Logan carefully breaks a cookie in half and offers it to Virgil. He smiles, slow and hesitant, and Virgil holds the cookie carefully. They lift the cookies up, reaching for each other; Logan takes a bite of Virgil’s half, and Virgil takes a bite of Logan’s half. When they open their eyes again, Logan reaches up and carefully brushes a crumb off Virgil’s face with his thumb, letting his hand cradle Virgil’s cheek.

Patton carefully ducks into the living room so that they can kiss in private, happy chills running down his spine. He can’t wait until he meets his soulmate.

*~*~*~*~*

SEVERAL YEARS LATER

*~*~*~*~*

Patton wheezes and coughs as a poof of flour rises up from the dough he’d unwisely punched. “I have got to stop doing that,” he gags, thumping his chest repeatedly. The door swings open, and Roman sticks his head through in concern.

“You alright, Pat?”

“Yep!” Patton grabs for his water bottle and chugs down half of it in one go. “Just got a little side tracked by the flour power, you know what I mean?” Roman blinks at him before laughing, sweeping his coppery curls off his forehead. Patton inhales and the air smells saccharine sweet and perfect - but then, it always smells like this here. He owns and works in a bakery, after all. Still, he allows himself a moment to stare dreamily at his front counter employee, wondering what it would be like if this smell meant something more, if Roman were actually his soulmate.

By the time Roman opens his eyes again, Patton has returned to kneading the brioche dough in front of him. “I know brioche sells well, but it’s such a pain to make. It takes two whole days! It has to refrigerate overnight, and it’s stiff as a rock in the morning. I just don’t have the muscles for this.”

“Not to brag or anything, but I do,” Roman says, casually curling one arm up and revealing a very obvious set of arm muscles. Patton is fairly sure he feels his soul leave his body and ascend to a new level of homosexuality. “If you wanted help, I -”

The bell above the door rings, and Roman grins. “Talk about this later?”

Patton nods, and Roman heads back out into the bakery proper. Patton exhales, pulling his sleeve up to study the recipe written across his forearm. He thought he would have met his soulmate by now, but it seems the universe has other plans for him. He refuses to give up hope on his soulmate, but he does wish they’d hurry up a little and fall into his path.

Roman pokes his head in again. “Patton, is the brioche done? The next group of soulmates is here.” Patton studies the bread dough in front of him, plops it back into a bowl, and covers it with saran wrap.

“It’s not done, but it’ll keep a little longer while I teach the class.” He pushes the dough back into the freezer and dusts off the flour coating his hands. “Can you handle the shop while I’m working?”

“I know where to find you if anything happens, but I think I got it!”

Patton steps into the shop proper. His eyes scan across the happy customers lounging in the cafe portion of his shop; the small group of new soulmates clustered near the doors to the kitchen, all chattering nervously; the display case of pastries, stocked full enough that Roman will be okay while he’s teaching this class; Roman himself, lounging across the front counter and flirting with a girl about their age, hair died in a gradient of blue-pink-purple.

He turns away and focuses on greeting the small group of soulmates waiting next to the doors of the communal kitchen. “Hello there! I take it you’re all here for the First Recipe class?” They nod, and Patton takes a moment to assess the group. Two young women, holding hands and blushing shyly; two young men, both fidgeting awkwardly as they offer one another fleeting glances and smiles; a rare soulmate throuple, a young woman sandwiched between two people who keep leaning in to make her giggle and blush.

“Excellent! Did you all bring a printout of your complete assembled recipe, as the signups requested? It makes it easier in the long run to cook!” They hand over their recipes, and Patton scans them quickly. “Most of these are one-day things, so you shouldn’t need to wait for anything to set overnight! If plans change, though, we can always rearrange a schedule. Come right this way!”

The communal kitchen is smaller than the industrial kitchen where Patton makes the bakery’s products. He’d designed it to be homier, more like walking into the sunlit kitchen of a small cottage than a large company. There are a few stations, wide enough for up to four people at a time, and a well-stocked refrigerator and pantry. The soulmates split themselves up around the kitchen; Patton passes out aprons and goes over a few basics about safety and where things are located before letting them free about the kitchen.

There are a few near mishaps; it’s clear some of them have never worked with a gas stove before, the knives are incredibly sharp, and some of the recipes call for more advanced techniques. Still, by the end of it, there are three completed recipes on the counters: one no-bake cheesecake, one batch of pâte à choux profiteroles, and one batch of orange-blueberry scones.

“Good job!” Patton grins. He watches the soulmates feed each other their dishes, laughing when one of the throuple soulmates dabs a bit of profiterole cream filling onto her partner’s nose and kisses it off while they blush and stammer. Once they’ve all completed their first bites, they share their recipes with each other and Patton.

“You all did a great job! I’m so proud of you, these taste amazing!”

He grins and pops a profiterole into his mouth. The sweet taste is almost enough to cover up the way his heart twinges watching all these happy young people with their soulmates.

*~*~*~*~*

“Patton, look out!”

Patton twists around to see Roman rushing towards him, but he’s not fast enough to stop Patton’s foot from sliding on the coffee spill. He pitches backwards, windmilling frantically in an attempt to keep himself upright, and then -

Suddenly, an arm curls around his waist, a hand grabs his hand, and Roman is dipping him right above the ground. Patton’s eyes are wide; he’s never been this close to Roman before, and he’s never notices the little flecks of yellow and gold scattered in Roman’s eyes, and his arms come up to loop around Roman’s neck.

Electricity sparks through Patton’s whole body. Judging by the way Roman’s eyes blow wide as saucers, he feels it too. Patton doesn’t want to stop looking at Roman as he pulls him up to his feet, carefully sliding his hands down Roman’s arms to hold his hands. His arm begins to glow brightly - his soulmark begins to glow brightly. Ribbons of blue light spiral around Roman, who gasps as flowing, elegant red script appears on his forearm.

“It’s you?” Patton whispers.

“It’s you,” Roman laughs. He pulls Patton into the back, into the kitchen, and before Patton can speak Roman’s pulled him into his arms and pushed his face into Patton’s hair. “Oh, thank all the Fates, it’s you, it’s you!”

“You . . . you wanted it to be me?”

“I did. I thought it was you who didn’t want it to be me because you didn’t react when you smelled the sweet smell in the air. I was so excited because I thought it was you, and then you didn’t -”

“That - wh -” Patton blinks. “The sweet smell around you was because we’re soulmates?”

“You didn’t realize?”

“We work in a bakery, Roman! I’m a baker! Everything smells sweet all the time!” Roman laughs, leaning in to press his forehead against Patton’s. “But - but I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so bad, Roman, every time I looked at you I could barely control how I felt but I didn’t think we could be -”

“I know, but we are. Think about it, Pat!” Before Patton can gather the courage to kiss him, the bell over the door rings. Roman sighs softly. “I should go handle that.”

“Do - do you have anywhere you have to be tonight? After work?”

“Nowhere except by your side.” Patton feels his entire face flaming up as Roman smirks and tucks Patton’s hair behind his ear. His mouth opens and closes as he tries to regain control of his voice.

“After we close down, we should go into the other kitchen and make our recipe together.” Patton’s heart swells like a balloon when he says “our recipe,” grinning like an idiot. Roman rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet, grinning happily, and Patton pulls one hand away from Roman’s chest to flap it in joy.

“Absolutely.” Before Patton can respond, Roman leans in and kisses his forehead before disappearing back into the front. Patton giggles to himself, spinning around in a quick circle and flapping his hands in joy. He stims gleefully to himself with his hands for almost ten minutes before he returns to the pastry he’s rolling out, rocking on his toes the entire time.

*~*~*~*~*

pattoncake baker man: VEE!!! u’ll nvr guess what just happened!!!!

pattoncake baker man: i found my soulmate!!!!

pattoncake baker man: it’s roman!!! i can’t believe i never noticed the smell!!!

shadow man: pat

shadow man: pat i love you but like

shadow man: you work in a GOD DAMN BAKERY

shadow man: tf did you expect???

shadow man: (but srsly, i’m happy for you bro <3)

*~*~*~*~*

Roman tilts his head, frowning at the page as Patton finishes writing down their recipe. “What . . . is it? What does our recipe make?” Patton scans through the steps, putting the pieces together in his mind and trying to assemble a complete puzzle.

“It looks like it’s some kind of custard tart. Shortcrust pastry, chocolate and cinnamon custard filling, grated chocolate on top . . . it sounds amazing.”

“You’re the baker here, so you’ll have to take the lead. I’m . . . not great at this kinda stuff.” Roman rubs the back of his neck. Patton reaches up and gently takes Roman’s hand, rubbing his thumb back and forth in a soothing stim.

“Hey. Is that negative self-talk I hear, mister? None of that! You think everyone in the world is a great baker when they make their soulmate recipe? No! All that matters is that we make it together.” Roman looks up, smiling, and Patton gathers all of his courage to lean forward and smooch Roman’s cheek. Roman gasps, rearing back, and for a split second Patton thinks he’s moved too fast.

Roman lurches forward, just as quickly, and then back and forth and oh goodness he’s full-on rocking and Patton must have made him so happy! Patton bounces up and down, rapidly flapping his own hands, and for a moment they just stim together in the kitchen.

It’s another five minutes before they actually start making the recipe, but neither of them mind too much.

*~*~*~*~*

Patton’s never worked with Roman in the kitchen before, but they flow together perfectly. They assemble the shortcrust together, and Roman puts his arm muscles to work kneading the pastry. Patton lets himself openly stare at the way Roman’s arms flex and bulge, reaching out and patting them with a high-pitched giggle.

“Am I doing it wrong?”

“Nope! Your arms are just . . . really nice.” Roman blushes before lifting one arm and deliberately flexing. Patton squeals and turns his attention back to the custard. They blind-bake the pastry, fill it with custard, and carefully grate chocolate while the tart bakes. It comes out shiny and glossy and perfect, and Patton carefully lays a paper stencil over the top of the custard tart while Roman shakes the grated white chocolate over it to from a swirling pattern.

“It looks beautiful,” Roman says. “But you look more beautiful.” Patton flaps a little in joy as Roman carefully picks up the kitchen knife and cuts a slice out of the tart. He hands Patton a fork and takes one himself, scooping up a piece.

“It cuts beautifully, too.” Patton looks at Roman, heart swelling, and offers him the forkful of tart. Roman does the same; Patton closes his eyes and opens his mouth. The tart hits his tongue and he gasps as chocolate and spice and silky-smooth custard bloom across his tongue. Roman makes a muffled, pleasured noise.

“It’s so good!” he gasps. Patton swallows his mouthful of chocolate and looks at Roman. “It’s sweet and spicy and smooth and - and I - Patton, it’s wonderful.”

“You’re wonderful.” Roman’s fork clatters to the counter as he reaches forward and cups Patton’s cheeks, pulling him in and pressing their mouths together. Patton squeaks and gasps and melts into Roman’s arms, hugging him tightly. Roman tastes like the custard they just ate, but he also tastes like sunshine and light and warmth. Patton’s been baking since he was small, but nothing tastes quite as sweet as Roman.

#starshinewrites #romantic royality #romantic analogical #soulmate!au #stimmy sides #roman sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders

175 notes · View notes

theimprobabledreamersworld · 3 years

Link

Yayy! Despite trying to fight off a monster of a cold, I’ve got a new chapter written! :D

As I mentioned yesterday, this one is written from Logan’s POV because I’ve been wanting to create a back story for him in this story :)

I’ll post the chapter under a line on here, but please check it out on Ao3 too! I love reading comments and stuff to find out what people think :)

Hope you like it!

Taglist: @psychedelicships @edupunkn00b @jwillowwolf @kacklingisanart @look-ma-im-on-tv @stardustlv @lost-in-thought-20

Chapter 5. My Heart Was Made Of Stone. And You Broke It Twice.

“But the wind has changed. My walls are weakening. They’re gonna fall soon. And I’m gonna need you.”

Logan was a man who always kept his emotions in check. He never let himself get too consumed by any kind of feeling. Happiness, sadness, love, hate, anger… Ever since he was sixteen, he refused to be vulnerable ever again. If you’re vulnerable, you can be broken. He had been broken far too many times when he was growing up.

His parents were agreeable, he couldn’t deny that… but he was never enough for them. Even as a young child, nothing was quite good enough. He remembered when the class teacher told his parents that he was the first child to learn how to write his name… he stretched up to show them and they let the paper flutter to the floor saying it wasn’t neat enough. He was only four! It got worse as he got older. Every time he was proud of something he had achieved, like getting a high grade, he was always asked why it wasn’t full marks. The unattainable goals were never reached and it took a lot to even vaguely satisfy them. He worked himself into the ground for the entirety of his school life, it affected his health, but they still weren’t happy. He was never strong enough, creative enough, serious enough, smart enough… and it hurt so much to know that. His friends however were amazing, they would always encourage him and make him take breaks when they knew he was working way too hard. They could always cheer him up and he was eternally grateful for that. Logan clenched his fists… he hated how much it knocked him down when he would walk in smiling over something that happened at school, to be told they weren’t interested and to just go and study. He always set himself up for the fall almost every day… no wonder emotions became such a hinderance. Luckily, music was his salvation for about eight years.

Logan took his head out of his hands, readjusted his eyes to the light and felt how raw they were from crying before staring at the dusty piano in the house intently. He used to be pretty good at playing. He loved his classical music, and still does. Just not playing it anymore. When he still had lessons, he was always thrilled with the challenge of increasingly difficult pieces given to him by his teacher. It was funny, his music teacher was the only person who ever truly believed in him. He was also the one person who could convince Logan to perform. The last concert he ever played in was the day before his sixteenth birthday, he played his most difficult piece to date… Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu Op 66. They decided on that because it was originally a piece that no one was ever supposed to hear, Chopin never wanted it to be released after he died… but they did it anyway. His teacher said that he could then perform it however he wanted to, artistic interpretation and all that. He practiced and practiced at school so his parents wouldn’t hear it before. When it got to the concert, and his parents actually turned up, he was genuinely surprised. He walked out on the stage and sat down looking for his teacher who gave him a smile and a thumbs up, then the music began. He felt almost like he was watching himself play, he had never played with such determination before and as the final note rung out… there was silence. Before the room broke out into applause, his teacher was standing up clapping vigorously, then some of his classmates and other parents stood up too. His parents however were sat down, clapping politely with a neutral expression on their faces and Logan’s smile faltered. He gave a quick bow and walked quickly off the stage. His teacher followed him and gave him a hug while telling him how proud he was. Logan couldn’t stop the tears, he had never cried in front of another person, but no one had ever been proud of him before either. How embarrassing. The first time he had been shown positive interest by someone he respected, and he cried until the top of their shirt was damp with his tears. His teacher just held him and told him everything was okay. After he had calmed down and the tears had stopped, he went to go and join his parents for the second half of the concert, but their seats were empty.

In that moment, he didn’t get upset again and stayed unusually calm, and he knew that this was the final straw. He stayed at a hotel for the night at the insistence of his teacher, that way he could sort out his head and start looking up different apartment options. Which he did realise could be tricky as a sixteen-year-old… but he was smart, reliable, didn’t drink or smoke and had a substantial amount of money at his disposal. He waited until the morning and snuck back into his parent’s house to collect all of the things that he deemed necessary. Thankfully, the hotel manager was understanding and let him stay for the bare minimum price until he could find an apartment for himself. It took a few months, and the landlord had to be persuaded by his music teacher, but he found an apartment which was close to everything he needed and was affordable. One day, he would repay that teacher back for everything he had done for him.

He looked at the calendar, the picture of him and Virgil smiling and holding up their wedding ring hands was taunting him on the wall. He noticed the date. Wow, it had been ten years since he left without looking back, and he never heard a single word from them.

That was clearly for the best.

Ever since then, he never let emotions get the better of him ever again. However, as he looked around at the decimated living room, he had clearly broken and let all of those emotions consume him once again. Logan inspected the damage, as he traced the hole in the wall, the shattered photo frames and glass covering the floor, it caused his heart to fill up with regret. His heart was already full of pain, the regret was enough to make his heart quite literally tear in two. Virgil was the first person he felt like he could be vulnerable with again. When they first met, there was something about him, something that reminded him of himself. Maybe this guy was just as broken as he was, as he saw him hiding in the corner of the coffee shop trying to stay away from the world. He told Virgil this many times, but he had encased his heart in stone to keep it safe. As their relationship developed, as stupid as it sounds, he could feel the stone wall cracking and breaking off piece by piece, and he honestly didn’t mind in the slightest.

Now, he didn’t know what was going on with his heart. He was hurt, he was angry. It’s not every day you find out that the man you’ve been married to for the last five years spent most of his life as a well-trained and dangerous assassin. Going by Virgil’s words alone, the body count to his name is staggering and who knows how many people he’s hurt over the years. The argument they had earlier in the evening was playing on repeat in his mind.

“I couldn’t tell you!” Virgil shouted across the room.

“Why the hell not?! I’m your fucking HUSBAND Virgil, you are supposed to trust me. No matter what’s happened in your past!” Logan rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Okay, you want to know why I hid everything from you? I did it to PROTECT you! My past is something that can be used against me, it is still being used against me. If anyone from it came after you… I would never be able to forgive myself!” The tears wouldn’t stop rolling down Virgil’s face as he spluttered out the words while his body shook with sobs.

Despite the hurt of seeing Virgil in so much pain, Logan couldn’t contain his anger. “What makes you decide if I need protecting? I can handle myself, ever since I was sixteen I’ve been on my own… You know that!”

Virgil sighed, like he was debating whether or not to say his next sentence.

“Remember when we met all those years ago? You told me about how you were attacked and how scared you were after it? Well… it was me. I was the guy who saved you. Every day since that moment, I vowed that I would protect you no matter the cost. Then I fell in love with you along the way, and I’ll love you until the end of time. If you want to know the truth about me, I know he gave you something. Look at it, and I won’t blame you if you try to turn me in to the police afterwards. I have to go now though, otherwise you will get hurt… I’m sorry, Lo.” Logan was left dumbfounded, and Virgil ran out of the front door, slipping away into the night.

There had been so many lies and too many secrets. He remembered that USB stick he threw in a drawer months ago. He opened it up and stared at the blue object, the label that read ‘Virgil… ?’ taunted him mercilessly. He looked over at his open laptop that was spared from his destructive anger, should he look at it?

Logan shook that thought away instantly, he needed to clear up first before making any kind of decision. He crouched down on the floor and started to sweep the glass over towards the sofa with his hand, just so he could clean it properly soon. He got to the first photograph, him and Virgil sitting in a restaurant holding hands and smiling at the camera. That picture was taken by Thomas and Nico, their two closest friends… He thought he should text them and see if they could come over. Virgil left half an hour ago, and he already felt too alone.

He’d contact them later, but for now. He wanted to stare at photographs and revel in his memories.

#fanfiction #ao3 #My story #ts fanfic #ts fandom #au #ts logan #ts virgil #assassin au #new chapter

5 notes · View notes

patchworkofstars · 4 years

Text

How (Not) to Meet Your Soulmate

Read on AO3

Relationships: Prinxiety and Logicality

Words: 4,082

Synopsis: It's moving-in day at college, and soulmates Logan and Patton are looking forward to finally meeting in person after years of writing each other messages on their skin. Their friends Roman and Virgil, however, just can't seem to do things the easy way!

** Thanks to: **

@lovelylogans for the Secret Santa wishes that inspired this fic in the first place

@metaphoricalpluto for helping me brainstorm ideas, listening to me rant, and generally being an awesome and supportive bean

@painfullybisexual for going above and beyond in helping me understand how US colleges work

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

“How”, complains Roman, “Is anyone meant to fit all their outfits into a shoebox like that?” He waves a frustrated arm at the tiny closet the college has provided, then glares at the three cases worth of clothes on his bed. The pile steadfastly fails to reduce.

“I managed it okay!” the room’s other occupant points out cheerfully, smiling over from where he’s pinning photographs of family, friends, and various cute animals haphazardly onto a cork notice board.

“I meant anyone fashionable", Roman amends, flashing his childhood friend and now roommate a grin to show he means no malice.

Patton giggles, reaching to pin another photo, then drops it with a sudden squeal. Grabbing a bright blue pen from his desk, he flings himself joyfully onto his bed, all else temporarily forgotten in favour of the neat indigo text rapidly appearing on his arm.

Roman rolls his eyes. “What time is your date with Logan?” he asks, once Patton has finished replying to his soulmate and flopped back onto his bed with a contented sigh.

“Four o’clock, at the fountain in the main quad”, Patton says, a dreamy look in his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m finally going to meet him face to face!”

“Yes...” Roman busies himself cramming yet more outfits onto the already overstuffed rail in his closet, while studiously avoiding looking at his own, conspicuously bare arm.

“Have you arranged when you’re gonna meet Virgil yet?” The question was inevitable; it’s not Patton’s fault that Roman was hoping not to hear it.

Roman pauses in the act of hanging up a prince costume he's sure he'll find an essential use for at some point. "We're thinking of meeting tomorrow instead", he replies, keeping his tone light. "Virgil's stressed about moving in and navigating the new place, even with Logan around, and we figured after all these years we can survive another day apart."

“You don’t mind waiting?” Patton sits up, frowning, and Roman tries not to squirm under his gaze.

He grimaces. “Well, okay, I'm not thrilled about it, but I want to do what’s best for Virgil. And besides, now we’re on the same campus, there’s a chance fate might intervene.” He presses his hands to his chest, his expression morphing into the smile of an incurable daydreamer. “An encounter of destiny, unplanned, between two souls bound to each other! Doesn’t that sound so much more exciting than something planned?”

“Well, as long as it’s what you guys both want!” Patton smiles, uncapping his pen once more and drawing a heart on his arm. As soon as Roman turns away to continue unpacking, he bites his lip. Beginning a new message to Logan, he thanks the universe, not for the first time, that his soulmate and Roman’s are best friends too.

~~*~~*~~*~~

Logan finished unpacking over an hour ago, taking pleasure in carefully organising his small selection of semi-formal clothes and his more extensive collection of books. Now, he sits relaxing at his desk, reading information about the college in between messages too and from Patton.

Reaching the end of a paragraph, he glances once more at his left arm and notices a new stretch of blue ink dancing its way into being across the skin. He frowns thoughtfully as he reads the words. Hmm…

He looks over to where Virgil is lying back on his bed, surrounded by messy heaps of his unpacked belongings. His eyes are closed and he's listening to music on his headphones, shutting out the chaos and unfamiliarity of his surroundings. Still, Logan knows that exclusion doesn't extend to himself. They've been friends since middle school, and the neurodiversity that brought them together has given them a shared need for space and stability. Virgil finds organising his room a trial, so, on Logan's advice, he's pacing himself. First, he unpacked by dumping everything out of his bags, and now he's taking a break before tackling the more substantial chore of organising it all for the year ahead.

Watching Virgil twitch slightly to the beat of the music, Logan considers. Patton's concern is a reasonable one. Logan was surprised himself by Virgil's reluctance to meet Roman, and while he didn't press the issue at the time, his soulmate has offered a different perspective. Perhaps some subtle investigating is in order after all.

“Virgil”, he begins, to get his roommate’s attention, “Why are you delaying meeting Roman? I realise you find the prospect of meeting new people a stressful one, but surely you cannot consider Roman a stranger after so many years of communication with him?”

Virgil grimaces, opening his eyes and rolling over to face Logan. “Take a wild guess”, he grunts. “I’m putting it off because I know he’s gonna be disappointed. I’ve been able to make him think I’m cool and edgy in writing, but that won’t last two minutes in person when I don’t have all that extra time to think about what to say.”

Logan frowns. “I have never read any reputable reports of people being disappointed when meeting their soulmates. On the contrary, most studies have found a remarkable degree of compatibility between even those with markedly different personalities.”

“Tell that to my anxiety, L.” Virgil sighs, propping himself up onto an elbow. “It’s just a massive step, you know? Feels like too much to handle on the same day as moving in here.”

“Entirely reasonable.” Logan gives what he hopes is a reassuring smile. “It was not my intention to pressure you into meeting sooner. Still, I want you to know I am confident that when you do meet Roman, you will find him happy to accept every side of you, even the ones you struggle to accept yourself.”

“Maybe.” Virgil clearly isn’t convinced, but Logan decides to drop the topic for now. If he’s still refusing to meet Roman tomorrow, they can discuss the issue further then.

He glances at his watch. "I need to leave soon for my planned meeting with Patton. Will you be okay without me?"

“Already?” Virgil groans, flopping onto his back once more.

“We arranged to meet an hour before the new students' assembly to give us ample time for conversation." He hesitates, trying not to sound reluctant as he adds, "If you need to come with me, I am sure Patton will understand."

Virgil shudders. “Hell no, I don’t wanna watch you being sappy and weird. I’ll be okay. Probably turn my music up and kill time by organising some of my stuff.”

Logan nods. “A sensible idea.” Picking up his bag, he checks he has everything he wants to take with him, then takes a deep breath. “I will see you later. Please send me a text if you need me. I may not see it immediately, but I will be sure to check periodically in case.”

Hand on the door handle, he freezes abruptly as an unexpected wave of nervous adrenaline hits him. Distantly, he’s aware of Virgil asking if he’s okay, and he nods despite the way his heart is hammering in his chest. “Text me if you need me”, he repeats, the words a mantra of friendship. Then the handle turns, and he is on his way.

~~*~~*~~*~~

It’s 3:55 when Logan arrives at the fountain, his usual precise punctuality waved in the hope of seeing Patton's. He sits down on the curved stone seat, hands gripping the concrete to still their shaking as he scans the crowds moving around him. The walk across campus has helped to clear the nervous fog from his mind, but the way his heart is pounding, a less scientific thinker would say it was trying to escape his chest.

Wrapped up in these thoughts, he doesn’t notice Patton until the man is six yards away, his long stride rapidly closing that distance. Logan freezes, his heart continuing its thudding beat but somehow doubling the rate, and he has to force himself to breathe. He stands on shaking legs, his eyes fixed irresistibly on the figure now standing before him.

Patton beams down, all tan skin and cotton candy sweater. “Logan?” he asks breathlessly, and Logan’s head nods mechanically as he stares.

Patton's smile somehow widens even further, and he shakes his hands at his sides as if needing to expend some of his boundless excited energy. "I'm so happy to finally meet you! Face to face, I mean! Is it okay if I shake your hand? It sounds silly, but I kinda need to touch you so that I'll know you're really real!"

Something in Logan’s chest relaxes, letting him breathe more easily at last. “I assure you I am no illusion”, he says, smiling as he holds out his left hand.

Patton stares at it, then giggles, and Logan suddenly understands the metaphor of being hit by Cupid’s arrow.

“I forgot we’re opposite-handed!" Patton explains, holding out his own left hand to shake Logan’s eagerly. “I mean, I knew, obviously, but it’s somehow different seeing it in person. Like, now I really know, you know?”

"Indeed, observing for oneself is generally more impactful than hearing information secondhand.” Logan smiles up at him. “You are taller than I expected. For some reason, I assumed you would be approximately my height or shorter, although I now realise that was irrational of me."

Does he sound silly? Perhaps, but he’s unexpectedly overwhelmed by the feelings Patton is eliciting in him. They’ve been having written conversations ever since their soul connection formed, and over time a friendly intimacy has developed between them. Several years have passed since he became aware of the warm sensation thoughts of Patton bring to his chest.

But now, having the man standing before him, seeing his brown eyes sparkling with joy and excitement and the affection in his smile... Hearing his voice and the soft lilt of his accent... Logan has never felt so much all at once before, and it's sending his usually tidy thoughts swirling and scattering like papers in a sudden breeze.

Patton laughs, and the sound shoots another arrow of giddy heat into Logan's chest. "Guess we never thought to tell each other our heights, huh? I'm kinda glad I'm taller than you, though, wanna know why?"

“Why is that?” Logan asks, dazed.

Patton beams at him. "'Cause it means I can wrap you up in a great big hug like I've always wanted to! If you're okay with it, that is?"

Logan nods emphatically, finding his expansive vocabulary buried beneath the sudden lump in his throat. As Patton wraps strong arms around him and rests a warm cheek on his hair, his eyes prickle with what he’s confused to realise are tears. The sensation is so rare, it takes a moment for him to connect them to the glow of happiness spreading through him. With a contented sigh, he raises his own arms to hug Patton back, settling comfortably into his embrace.

~~*~~*~~*~~

Virgil sits on the edge of his bed, frantically bouncing one knee as he wonders if he should set out alone to the assembly. Deep in his spiralling thoughts, he startles hard when his phone buzzes with a text from Logan.

“Salutations,

Would it be possible for you to make your way to the event without me? I realise it may be selfish, but I am keen to spend as much time as possible getting to know Patton better. You are welcome to sit with us if we encounter you when we get there.

- Logan”.

Dammit. It’s what Virgil was expecting, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. He hates both crowds and formal events, and the thought of walking into this combination alone causes bitter dread to pool in the pit of his stomach. Plus, going without Logan means he’s almost guaranteed to end up sitting next to total strangers. He shudders.

Still, he refuses to make Logan worry. Firing back a quick “I’ll be okay”, he puts his earphones in and tries to lose himself in the music as he makes his way across campus to the venue.

Head down, eyes fixed on the ground a foot ahead of him, he tries to forget just how many people are heading the same way he is. As he approaches the hall, he becomes vaguely aware of a loud voice talking nearby. The small part of his mind paying attention concludes it's a telephone conversation, since only one side can be heard.

“But you can’t just abandon me to sit on my own!” the voice wails. “What will people think?! Yes, I’m sure he is handsome and smart and wonderful, but bros before souls, that’s what I always say. Well, okay, maybe I’ve never said it before, but I’m saying it now! Yes, I know, I can hear him. You're right, his accent is cute. I can’t wait to hear my soulmate's- OUCH!!"

A flailing arm thuds into Virgil, who is nearly thrown off balance by the shock of the impact. He looks up, glaring daggers, to find the loudmouth scowling back with equal fury.

“Watch where you’re going, clod!” the overdressed stranger rants.

“Same to you, watch where you’re flinging your arms!”

"I'm having an important conversation-"

“What’s the point in waving your arms around when the person on the phone can’t even-”

They're interrupted by an official-sounding voice ringing out over a tannoy, reminding everyone that the assembly will begin soon and they should hurry inside and find seats.

The disparate parts of the crowd begin to converge, pushing into the hall, and Virgil and the loud stranger are carried along side by side in the flow. They find themselves pushed together to sit on the end of a row of chairs, and although Virgil is still annoyed, he takes some relief at having the aisle seat.

“How did I get stuck next to the emo nightmare?" he hears his neighbour grumble under his breath.

“Karma for being a nightmare yourself”, Virgil mutters, and the stranger at least has the decency to blush.

Their bickering might have continued indefinitely, but at that moment the MC steps up to the microphone to begin their welcome, and an unspoken truce descends.

*****

When at last it's over, Virgil sits back in his chair and sighs wearily. "That was even more boring than I thought it would be", he remarks to no one in particular.

Of course, the stranger beside him responds as though it were directed at him. “I’m surprised you heard any of it with your earphones in the whole time. I could hear your music all the way through!”

Virgil turns and raises an eyebrow. "Yeah? Well, maybe you wouldn't have if you hadn't been leaning over so close to me. You were practically on my lap!"

The stranger huffs, glaring back at him. “It’s not like I had a choice! It was the only way I could see past that mountain of a guy in front of me!”

“Well, sorry I didn’t realise you were so keen for a good view of some guy standing talking.” Virgil scowls. “So you could hear my music, huh? Is that why you kept tapping your fingers on your knee? Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

“I didn’t realise you were paying so much attention to my legs! And besides, I defy anyone not to tap their fingers along to Panic! At The Disco!”

“Wait, you recognised it?” Virgil frowns at the thoroughly preppy-looking guy next to him. “I wasn’t exactly the mainstream stuff. I didn’t take you for an emo.”

“If you must know, my soulmate's an emo, and he introduced me to them. I might not share all his tastes, but as a theatre kid, I always appreciate theatrical flair."

Oh right, soulmates are a thing. Virgil gives a grunt that could mean anything, turning his attention away from the stranger's continued rambling. He watches as more and more individuals and groups make their way to the exits. All the freshmen are meant to be here, which means Roman must be somewhere amongst them. For the first time, he almost regrets never asking for a photograph or more detailed physical description. But he always feared Roman would expect the same from him in return, and then be disappointed or put off by his ever-present hoodie and black eye shadow.

It doesn’t help that the vague description he’s been given of “Tall, with brown hair and blue eyes”, could fit far too many of the students here, including the one tapping a foot and making impatient noises beside him.

With a sigh, Virgil stands up, switching his music back on and turning up the volume as he waits for a gap in the flow of bodies. As soon as one appears, he steps into it, letting himself be absorbed and carried away towards the door. As he moves away, he’s distantly aware of his former seat-mate speaking, but he’s too stressed, too busy trying to blot out the strangers surrounding him to think of looking back.

~~*~~*~~*~~

Roman sighs, flopping dramatically backwards onto his bed. It's been a long day, and he wants to relax, but his mind buzzes restlessly with frustration.

Patton sent a text to say he’ll be getting dinner at the dining hall with Logan, and while he did say Roman was welcome to join them, Roman has no desire to play third wheel, thank you very much. Besides which, he can't shake the petty resentment that his hopes of a destiny-driven encounter with Virgil have apparently been dashed. Instead, he got stuck with some other emo, who, while admittedly very cute, had the cheek, the absolute bare-faced audacity to zone out while Roman was speaking to him and then walk away without even a goodbye!

With a huff, Roman rolls over and glares at the time. It’s 7:15 pm, earlier than his and Virgil’s usual chat time, but he needs to feel connected to his soulmate right now. With a surge of misery, he realises he’s lonely, as well as more envious of Patton and Logan than he’d like to admit.

Fumbling in a pocket, he pulls out the red glitter gel pen he reserves for soul-to-soul talks, and writes “Hey, stormcloud, are you free?” on his left arm.

After a few moments, a spidery dark purple reply writes itself onto his right arm. “Yeah, wanna talk now?”

"Patton's off with Logan, and I need to vent!" He underlines "vent" three times, as emphatic in writing as he would be out loud.

“Is that all I am to you? A listening arm?” It’s followed by their own version of a “:P”, to show that Virgil is joking.

“Of course not, my shadowling! But I’ve had the most boring day, and I'm lonely~".

“Yeah yeah, Logan’s ditched me too, remember? Did you make it to the assembly? I looked for you”.

Roman groans, then does his best to reproduce the sound in writing. “Uggghhh, I did, and I got stuck next to the most annoying guy ever!”

“Hah! Can’t have, because the most annoying guy was sitting next to me. He kept fidgeting and getting in my space through the whole thing”.

Roman grins, standing up and moving to the sink, where he rinses the red ink from his arm to make space for more, Virgil must have the same idea, because a moment later the purple text begins erasing itself too.

“I wish I could’ve sat with you”, he writes, as soon as his arm is dry.

“Same”. There’s a pause, and then, “Kinda regret not meeting you today”.

Roman stares at the words, running his left hand unconsciously through his hair. Destiny might have denied him a chance first meeting, but if Virgil has changed his mind, there’s no reason for them to hold back any longer. Decision made, he uncaps his pen and writes “Want to meet now?” before he can lose his nerve.

The seconds tick by with no response, not a drop of purple ink appearing, and he begins to worry he’s misjudged Virgil’s feelings. Then, at last, three letters appear, small but undeniable:

“Yes”.

“Yes!!” Roman echoes in a yell to the empty room, leaping up and grabbing his jacket from the back of his desk chair. Then he hesitates, sitting back down on the edge of the bed as he realises he doesn’t know where Virgil’s room is. Or even if he’s there, for that matter.

Besides which, while Virgil did accept the offer, his reply wasn’t exactly enthusiastic. Best to make certain he really wants to do this first.

“Are you sure? I don’t mind waiting”, Roman writes, adding a smiley face for good measure.

This time there is only a short pause before the words appear. “Yeah, the whole assembly thing made me wanna see you properly”.

Roman takes a deep breath, trying to still the tremor of excitement rushing through him. “Okay!” he writes back. “Want me to bring anything? I have a popcorn maker and every single Disney movie!”

“Seriously? You brought a freaking popcorn maker to college?”

“We always said we’d have movie nights when we finally met up, eating popcorn and talking all through the films!”

“You are so unbelievably extra”.

“You love it!”

“Yeah, I’m weird like that.”

“So, no popcorn?” Roman asks.

“Are you kidding? Of course bring popcorn!”

Roman grins.

*****

He takes his time making the popcorn, giving Virgil space to adjust to the change in plans. As he does, his thoughts drift to his grumpy seat-mate from earlier, and he remembers wincing as the guy picked at his chipped black nail polish during the endless speeches.

That gives him an idea…

“How about we paint our nails while we talk?” he suggests. “It’s relaxing and we’ll look good!”

“Sure”, appears on his arm. “I’ve only got black and purple though.”

“Fear not, my dark and stormy knight, I have every colour of the rainbow!” Roman grabs his makeup pouch and empties it onto his desk, separating out a selection of his favourites. These he puts back in the pouch, then it goes into his bag with the tub of popcorn.

“I’m ready to head out!” he writes on his arm. “Where’s your room?”

There’s a pause, then the address appears. But before Roman can lower his arm, Virgil adds, “Brace yourself for disappointment”.

“Why?” he writes back, frowning.

“I’m just… probably not gonna be as cool as you expect”.

“Don’t worry, I know you’re not as cool as me!” He replies immediately, then hesitates. Virgil has been vulnerable with him, and he should repay the honesty.

“I’m nervous too”, he admits, “But this is us, remember? We’ve spoken every day since we turned ten and our soul bond formed. We’ve listened to each others’ favourite music, watched each others’ favourite movies, and stayed up all night talking. We’ve shared our hopes, our fears, and our dreams. Even if we weren’t soulmates, you're my best friend, and I love you. Nothing's going to change that.

*****

It's a short walk across campus to Virgil's dorm, and nervous energy quickens Roman's strides. At last, he finds the right number door and gives a firm knock. Slowly, cautiously, it opens to reveal...

“You?!” Roman practically screeches.

“Seriously?!”

“I cannot believe this! Are you actually telling me you’re Virgil?”

“How many ginger-haired emos from Milwaukee do you think there are on campus?!”

“You’re Virgil...” There’s a pause as Roman’s expression visibly cycles from indignant, through dawning realisation, to settle on contrite. “Sorry about, you know...” He waves his arm, and Virgil raises an eyebrow.

“Sorry you clobbered me with your arm?”

“Well, yes… I was talking to Patton and didn’t notice you.”

“Yeah, I got that. Sorry I wasn’t, you know, watching where I was going.” Virgil looks down, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “Look, I know I’m annoying. If you’re gonna leave, just go.”

Roman frowns. “Don’t be ridiculous. You might be annoying, but you’re my best friend! I came here to eat popcorn, riff on Disney movies, and hug you, and I’m not leaving until I’ve done all three!”

Virgil looks up, finally managing a lopsided smile. “You sure?”

“Of course! And besides, I bet I can be twice as annoying as you.”

With a snort, Virgil steps back, opening the door further to let Roman in. “Good to know fate made the two most annoying guys in the world soulmates.”

Roman grins. “Soulmates about to have the best evening ever!” he replies.

~~*~~*~~*~~ *~~

@creativity-killed-thekitten @the-prince-and-the-emo @shesavampirequeen @patton-in-name @pearls-of-patton @xxladystarlightxx @suyun-doo @softestlittlepuffball @evilmuffin @milomeepit @musikasworld @holy-anxiety-batman @quoth-the-sparrow @daring-elm @sandersfanders

#prinxiety #logicality #roman sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #sanders sides #soulmate au #patchwork fic

360 notes · View notes

vincent-frankenstein · 4 years

Note

"Do you...well...I could give you a massage?" With prinxiety? Maybe Virgil is stressed and Roman doesn't know quite how to help? Maybe vice versa? Anyways love your writing so much and you make my life complete ahahaaa 💕💕

Summary: Virgil’s got a troubled life. Roman helps in the best ways he can.

Warnings: references to child abuse, panic attacks, Bad Feelings

Pairing: platonic prinxiety (more brotherly than anything)

Roman's halfway through mustering the courage to open his physics homeworkwhen a figure slides through his open window and lands in a heap on the floor.He barely bats an eye at the sudden intrusion.

"I thought we already talked about your nasty habit of breaking andentering, Three Gays Grace," he says, fingers tapping against the unopenedfolder on his desk. "I was in the middle of something."

But then the figure stands and Roman notices the discomfort rolling off himin waves, cold tendrils of fear buzzing through the air around him. His face iswet, and deathly pale; Roman can see his hands trembling through his hoodiepockets. He stands in an instant, homework forgotten.

"What's wrong?" he asks, voice snapping with urgency."Virgil, what's wrong?"

Virgil makes a strangled half-noise and lifts his hands to ball them up inhis hair. Roman's at his side in an instant, hands hovering just above hisshoulders. His mind races; a thousand different grounding methods burst to theforefront of his mind and he grabs one at random, pressing his hands down ontoVirgil's arms, steady, warm. Together they sink to the floor.

"Follow my breathing," he says, exaggerating the noise of his nextinhale so Virgil can hear. He counts out a steady beat in his head - one, two,three, four, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven - and moves his hands upand down Virgil's arms with each inhale and exhale. Virgil's breath stutters sobadly he can hardly follow along - he reaches one, two, three, then hiccups andfalls back to one, then heaves several one-second breaths until his eyes aresqueezed tightly shut and he shakes so badly under Roman's touch that Romanfears he'll break.

But then he reaches four - then seven - and then eight. He completes onebreath, and then another, and his face un-scrunches. For a split-second hemelts into Roman's touch, dissolving under the weight of his fingertips.

Roman feels rather than sees the moment Virgil shoves his walls back intoplace. His shoulders go rigid; his face darkens, and he huffs out a shortbreath that shifts the tousled bangs hanging in his face. He's pulling awaybefore Roman can stop him, standing, shoving his hands back in his pockets.

"Virgil -"

"Sorry 'bout that," he says, gruff, a low grating growl of avoice. "I know you don't like it when I come in unannounced."

"I don't like it when you come in to throw water balloons at my head otrelease live crickets into my room." Roman sighs, running a hand throughhis hair. Distantly, he notices it's shaking. "This is different."

Virgil shifts, forcing a laugh. "Hey, the crickets weren't my idea,Princey. Blame your brother for that."

He wants Roman to rise to the bait, wants them to fall into their familiarbanter and wash away whatever that was. Roman won't let him. "Mhm.Are you going to tell me what that was about?"

"Nah," Virgil says, with a casual shrug that's so obviously forcedit comes off more tense than anything. "Mystery loves company,right?"

"Virgil." Roman catches his eyes and narrows his own. In truth, hehardly expects anything in return; he and Virgil were banter buds and nothingmore, a far cry from the comforting relationships Virgil had forged with Loganand Patton. Just the fact that Virgil chose to come to him in the first placewas strange enough.

But to his great surprise, Virgil holds his glare for a steady moment - andthen deflates. His shoulders lift up to his ears as his gaze drops to thefloor, and he mumbles. "M'parents," he mutters, and it's a wonderRoman can understand him. "They're... yknow. Fighting."

"Oh." Roman hesitates. He'd known, distantly, that Virgil's homelife wasn't the best, but Virgil had never willingly talked about itbefore. "I'm so sorry."

"It's nothing," Virgil says, with a laugh that sounds anything buthumorous. "Just got to be a bit too... much." He waves his handsthrough the air, grimacing.

"It's not nothing," Roman says, a dull spark of anger curlingthrough his lungs. "I can fight them for you. I have a sword. I'll doit."

Virgil doesn't laugh. His grimace deepens, eyes closing, a sharp breathpuffing from his nose. He wraps his arms around himself and takes a step back,and Roman feels hot inadequacy spilling like lava into the pit of his stomach.

"M'sorry," Virgil says, taking another step back. He's nearly tothe window now; Roman's seized with the sudden urge to yank it shut. "Ishouldn't have bothered you with this. I'll just - I'll just go -"

"No!" Roman bursts out, hand lifting. Virgil stops, eyes flyingwide, and for a moment they stay just like that - neither talking, neithermoving, caught in limbo as Roman searches desperately for some way to comforthim. "Do you... well... I could give you a massage?"

A massage? The moment the words leave his mouth he regrets them. Wholooks at a kid caught in the throes of familial turmoil and offers them a massage?

But then Virgil snorts. And it's a real snort, not some half-assed fake;Roman can see it in the way his eyes light up. "A massage, Princey?"he asks, lips quirking up, and Roman decides to roll with it.

"Why not?" he says. "I'll have you know I'm a certifiedmassagier!"

"That's not the word."

"Masoose?"

"Also no."

"I am a certified giver of massages!" Roman declared, too boldlyfor Virgil to retort. "My hands are as utterly enchanting as the rest ofme."

"Weird flex, but okay," Virgil says. He shrugs off his hoodie anddrops to the floor, crossing his legs beneath him.

"O-Okay?" Roman repeats, faltering. "Wait, you - you actuallywant me to -"

"Not like I have anything better to do," Virgil says, rolling hiseyes. His gaze catches on the window, and Roman understands; he just doesn'twant to go home.

If Roman had his way, Virgil would never have to set foot in that place everagain. But he doesn't have that kind of power, so instead he lowers himselfdown behind Virgil and shakes his hands until they're loose. "Tell me ifyou become uncomfortable," he says.

"I'm always uncomfortable," Virgil retorts, but he nods. Romanlets out a breath and settles his hands in the curve of Virgil's neck, runningthem down along his shoulders, thumbs pressing into his shoulder blades. Heexpects Virgil to tense up at the feeling.

He doesn't expect Virgil to melt beneath his hands - nor does he expect thesoft noise Virgil makes, somewhere in the back of his throat. "Alright,hun," he says, putting on a thick accent, like a cliche hairdresser."Tell me, how're things?"

"Shit," Virgil says. "They're shit." But he's laughing,and Roman takes that as a good sign.

"Ugh, I know the feeling, honey, I know the feeling." He shiftshis hands to the sides of Virgil's face, ever-so-gently massaging his temples."Better now that you're in my hands, I bet?"

"Yeah, sure," Virgil snorts. "I just -" He cuts off,nose twitching, and Roman's hands still.

"You can talk to me, hun," Roman says. Then, with no accent:"I promise."

Virgil groans. "It's just-!" He growls, throwing his hands up inthe air. "They're allowed to be as - as cruel to each other as they want,as cruel to me as they want, but the moment I say anything about it I'mthe bad guy! It's stupid!"

It's a cold day in hell when Roman Grimm can't think of anything to say, buthe's really, truly stuck. Instead he hums, and runs his hands down Virgil'sarms. Virgil shivers.

"I dunno," he says, anger fading as quickly as it came. "Like- I shouldn't complain. Loads of people have it worse, yknow?"

"Loads of people have it better, too," Roman says, a quiet angerrunning beneath his words. For a long moment, Virgil doesn't respond. He'shardly even breathing, the little breaths he does take short and uneven, andfor a moment Roman hesitates, wondering if he's going to have to ground Virgilall over again.

Then he sighs. "I don't wanna go back," he says, in a voice sosmall it breaks Roman's heart. He hesitates, hands stilling against Virgil'sshoulders, eyes narrowing.

Then he gasps. The brilliant lightning of inspiration has struck, and hefeels electrified beneath it, face glowing with excitement. "You can stayhere tonight!" he says, scrambling around to face Virgil.

Virgil blinks and leans back, eyes narrowing. "What?"

"Come on, don't tell me you've never had a sleepover before!"Roman takes Virgil's hands in his own, leaning close. "It'll be fun! Wecan stay up late, watching chick-flicks and doing each other's makeup -"

Virgil lifts an eyebrow, and Roman switches tracks. "Or we could...watch horror movies 'til the witching hour and listen to your pg-13music?"

At that, Virgil's face brightens somewhat, sunlight filtering down throughthe clouds. Still, he remains guarded, shoulders hunched and eyes narrowed."... Why?"

"Because it's fun, Marilyn Morose," Roman says with a rollof his eyes. Then, more sincerely, with the barest hint of a kind smile,"besides... I don't want you to have to go back there."

Virgil's cheeks color. He looks away, hands twisting in his lap. "But -your parents? And you said you were in the middle of something, I don't want to-"

"Nonsense!" Roman waves his hand through the air, dismissing thethoughts. "My parents love you, they'd be thrilled to have you! And myhomework can wait. You're the priority here."

"I -" Virgil's retort dies on his tongue and he gapes for amoment, silent, struggling to find words. His hands twist tighter, hisshoulders hunch further, and for a moment Roman wonders if he's gone too far,done something wrong -

But then Virgil shoots forward and wraps his arms around Virgil's middle.Roman only takes a moment to wonder at the fact that this is the first timethey've hugged through nearly three years of friendship before he hugs back,bracing his arms around Virgil's back.

In the weeks that follow, they'll talk. Roman's parents will find out, ofcourse, about the pain Virgil's being put through - and they'll do everythingthey can do help. A handful of months later, Virgil will move into the Grimm'sspare bedroom, and he'll never have to see his parents again if he so wishes.

But for now, Virgil melts into Roman's arms, andRoman holds him tight.

#roman sanders #virgil sanders #platonic prinxiety #sanders sides #tw abuse #tw panic attack #brotherly prinxiety has been my JAM lately i just.. love they #i think ro's parents are pat n dee #or remile?#who knows #eventually they Adopt virgil and they're a Happy Fambly #celeste's portfolio #Anonymous

122 notes · View notes

a-small-batch-of-dragons · 3 years

Text

Faded

Averykedavra prompt: okay, first of all, can I be added to your taglist? I love your fics! secondly, if you're open to prompts (apologies if you're not) could you write some logan-centric hurt/comfort? with roman and maybe Virgil comforting him? no pressure, but thanks!! and again your fics are absolutely incredible

Thanks for the prompt babe you’re an icon ^_^

Read on Ao3

Warnings: Logan’s not feeling so great, so self-doubt, self-esteem issues, all that jazz

Pairings: depending on how you want to read it, logince, analogical, possible prinxiety, analogince, or just hella platonic. My aro ass doesn’t know anymore you choose

Word Count: 4237

When a Side's role is disregarded, their door fades from the hallway.

Logan...do the others really need Logan?

Or just Logic?

“Neato! So you're making your little factoids optional this time around.”

Thank Archimedes the little pixelated boxes didn’t allow for much dynamic character interaction.

Logan swallows and tries to keep going, growing more concerned that the lump in his throat would make it impossible to speak. But he can do this. For Thomas, he can do this. He has to.

“Oh, I’ve got this one, guys!”

‘IGNORANT’ flashes up in front of him in big, red letters. Almost immediately he can hear the scoldings of Thomas and Patton followed by Roman’s mumbled apology but it’s too late. The word sears itself into his brain and he can’t see anything other than the choice that they’ve made.

He swallows again. Alright. He’ll speak directly to the audience. Thomas has to listen to them eventually, doesn’t he?

…well, maybe, but that doesn’t stop it from hurting every time he pops up with something and it’s completely ignored. He tries to appeal to Patton’s sense of humor. He tries to give Roman something when he can’t find the right words. He tries to give Thomas something, anything.

Then he gets overexcited and pushes Patton into the blinds.

The second Roman’s sword flashes out and slices him neatly in two a searing bolt of pain spreads to his arms, to his chest, to his throat. He knows logically—he knows everything logically—he can’t be hurt by that. It isn’t him. He is not connected in any way physically to these lowdowns.

So why are his hands shaking?

This is so ridiculous. He is Logic. He should not be working like this, he should not be reacting like this. This is logically the next step, he must simply not be out of the adjustment process yet. Which is ridiculous in and of itself, has he not mentioned several times over that the presence of the others imbeds Thomas’s ability to think rationally and calmly about the issues they have to face? Has he not himself wondered that if he were not so…undone by being in the same room that he finds it difficult to keep going when he needs to? Shouldn’t this be better?

“You know I'm- I'm not doing a really great job explaining this philosophy. Um, Logan?”

Patton? Logan pops up.

Patton smiles—smiles?—at him as the box appears at the bottom of the screen. From this angle, he can’t see Roman or Thomas. What’s happening? Why hasn’t he been paying better attention?

Why can’t he focus?

“What would a real philosopher think about what I'm saying here?”

Oh. Oh, no. This isn’t going to be good, is it?

“Well, Frederich Nietzsche really wouldn't have been thrilled with anything you've had to say, primarily because pity seems to be at the center of your idea of ‘putting good into the world.’”

“Th-that's not what—“

“Nietzsche famously rejected the notion that pity was a virtue.”

“Okay,” comes the quiet mumble that, really, should’ve told him to stop talking now, he wasn’t being useful anymore.

But no. Logan was never very good at being quiet, now was he?

“He once claimed that pity ‘runs counter to the instincts that preserve and enhance the value of life…’”

Last chance, Logan, something in his head whispers as something else flashes in the corner of his vision.

‘Skip all.’

But they would never do that, right? They knew, somewhere, because Thomas knew, that you had to listen to Logic. You had to listen, at some point, because if you didn’t, what did you have? They would shake their heads or grumble in annoyance, or cut him off when he’d been talking for too long or ask him to be quiet, but they’d never skip him entirely, cut him out of the conversation, would they?

Patton’s finger presses the button and something of unyielding cold wraps around Logan’s neck.

He flails as it yanks, jerking back awake with his eyes open, out of the boxes, out of the video, at his desk, staring at the screen as his lowdown program blocks him out.

No.

No!

What happened? Why did they—is he—can he—

Why didn’t they want to listen?

Logan’s fingers fly over the keyboard in front of him, searching desperately for an answer. Maybe he programmed this wrong. Admittedly he’s a little new at programming so he could’ve messed something up that disconnected him. Maybe Patton clicked it by mistake. Why was there even a ‘skip all’ button to begin with? He doesn’t remember programming that. And what was it that wrapped around his throat?

His hand goes to his neck at the mere memory of the horrible thing that yanked him out. He winces when his fingers slide of patches of warm, inflamed skin. It…it actually hurt. It left a mark.

What—

The instant his lowdown pops up with his face, he knows.

It shouldn’t hurt. Really. This shouldn’t hurt.

Now perhaps Deceit could see what it was like to be Logic. Or at least to try and be Logic.

Now perhaps…perhaps he may have someone to talk to.

No.

Deceit was, in fact, far better at being Logic. Within an instant, he’d gotten the conversation to his side, gotten the others to listen, to think about what they were saying instead of just following on blind faith.

Of course.

Because it wasn’t Logic they didn’t want to listen to, was it?

It was Logan.

Logan closes his eyes. Alright. He can adapt to this. He can…he can work with this. He just has to figure out how.

He turns away from the computer, stands, and carefully makes his way across his room to the nightstand, where the emergency first-aid kit sits tucked in the drawer. He will patch himself up, best he can, and then figure out what to do.

He’s too distracted to hear Roman’s terrified shout.

“What have you done with Logan?”

———————————————————

A few hours after filming stops, there’s a very soft knock on Logan’s door. He doesn’t move from his desk, nor does he pause in his typing. False sympathies and empty comforts have never been very appealing.

…and he is just the slightest bit worried that he won’t be able to resist the urge to slam the door in Patton’s face.

Footsteps moving away sound from outside. Good. It’s better this way, isn’t it?

The lowdowns didn’t work. Well, they did…but they worked a little too well, didn’t they? Instead of being less invasive, they just…cut Logan’s contributions out entirely. They let Logan be taken. They were good for Logic, not Logan.

Logan’s head turns to the wall where he has two lists tacked up. Standing, the desk chair scraping behind him, he picks up the marker.

His job is to be Logic. Therefore, if he is failing at that job, he must find a way to be better.

The list on the left has ‘LOGIC’ written in large, block letters. On the right, ‘LOGAN.’ Isolating the key characteristics of each concept will help to shift himself properly into the role he must play. Logan’s eyes scan down the ‘LOGIC’ list.

LOGIC:

Emotionless

Useful

Rational

Necessary

Welcome

The end of the word ‘welcome’ is smeared. Logan looks down at the marker. His hands had shaken so much as he added that last word…why? It was true; logic should be welcome in any conversation, that’s why is it so useful, that’s why it has so many of the other characteristics that it has. Logic should be wanted, regardless of the subject matter, because of what it could do. It had felt so small of Logan to add the word, even when it was the correct course of action. Was it not implied by the others that it should be wanted?

That…that he should be wanted?

Unconsciously, Logan twists the cap of the marker back and forth as his eyes dart over to the ‘LOGAN’ list.

LOGAN:

Irritating

Invasive

Emotional

Easily dismissed

Unwanted

If he had any doubts about whether or not these qualifications were inaccurate, each had cemented their place on this list after today.

Logan’s hand flies to his neck again, grazing over the bandages he’d wrapped around himself, only to stutter to a halt when his fingers met the fabric of his tie.

His tie.

Hadn’t—he’d—he’d been so sure he’d been doing this right. He dressed well, he spoke carefully, he did his research, why—why was it so easy for them to say he was—to think of him as—

…why didn’t they want to listen to him?

He tried. He tried so hard to be what they wanted, what they would listen to, to appeal to each and every one of them to make sure he was still fitting in enough to be heard. Logic had to be heard, that’s one of its most important qualifications.

As his fingers fumble and catch around the knot, it pulls taut and for a moment he’s thrown back into the feeling of Deceit’s crook around his neck.

Oh.

Oh, that’s right…he…Deceit—or, well, Janus, now—didn’t he...he was…Logic isn’t the problem.

Janus’s Logic made them listen. Janus’s logic made them pay attention. Janus’s Logic was wanted.

Logan’s fingers slide off his tie in a numb haze.

His hand falls limply to his side.

He stares at the lists.

Irritating.

Invasive.

Emotional.

Easily dismissed.

There is a reason none of these qualifications have come up when he considers pure Logic.

A wave of cold rushes over Logan. His knees wobble. His hand staggers out for something, anything to grab onto, to hold, to stop himself from collapsing under the weight of what he just realized, to stop it, to stop it, to stop—

He hits the ground with a thud.

The words beat into his head over and over as he lies there, frozen, cold, so cold, curled up by his bed with something wrapped tightly around his throat and his glasses staying stubbornly on his face so the words remain in perfect focus.

It is not Logic that is the problem.

The others can use Logic.

The others can listen to Logic.

The others can want Logic.

They just don’t want Logan.

Logan curls closer around himself as it starts to become very, very cold. That…this can’t be right, he must be missing something. He’s emotionally compromised right now, he’s not any good at being Logic, maybe—maybe that means he’s doing it wrong, he has to be doing this wrong, there’s no way they could—they need him, don’t they? They need Logan, they have to listen to him, they—they—

Unbidden, a whine escapes Logan’s throat. It burns as it rings around his empty, cold room. He covers his face with his hands.

Even his cheeks feel icy cold.

Someone will notice, he tries frantically, someone will notice if I never show up again, someone will notice if I—if—if—

But they didn’t notice. Not today.

Not until it was too late.

Outside, in the corridor, a dark blue door begins to fade into the wall.

———————————————————

“Logan? Logan!”

Bam, bam, bam.

“Logan!”

Frantic hammering against the door jolts him awake. Immediately he winces as something in his neck catches. How—how long has he been like this?

“Logan, please, open the door, we—we can’t open it!”

Oh…the others have noticed…should go open the door.

Wincing again, Logan rights himself, sitting up with his back leaning against the bed, blinking through his fuzzy glasses. Why are they so filthy?

…oh, he must’ve been crying.

How emotional.

“Logan? Logan can you at least say something?”

“I’m gonna break this door down.”

“No!”

Well, yes, Logan does not want his door broken down. Groaning, he stands, making his way over to the door that—wait.

Why…why is his door so…pale?

The knob looks almost translucent as he reaches for it, his pulse hammering as his fingers close gently around where it should be. He takes a deep breath and carefully, carefully, turns it.

“Logan, thank god, I—“ Virgil cuts himself off with a choked gasp as he stares at Logan. “…L? What…what happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” The instant it comes out of his mouth he knows what Virgil means. He sounds like his throat is actively attempting to cut itself off with every breath.

A choked whine comes from behind Virgil. Logan’s eyes dart over to see Roman a sickly pale, staring at Logan, horrified.

“…S-specs? Specs, I—Logan, oh, no, can I—can we—“ Roman reaches for him, only to freeze and quickly pull back his hand.

Another wave of cold settles over Logan and his hand falls through the doorknob.

“Logan,” Virgil murmurs, “can we come in, please? I, uh, we wanna talk to you for a moment.”

Why would you want to talk to me?

“…of course.” Logan steps aside and lets them pass, looking down at his hand.

It’s still a hand, but it looks…thinner. He can tell where it isn’t, if that makes sense.

When has Logan ever made sense?

Virgil sits down on the floor, next to his bed. Roman hovers near the door, wringing his hands together as Logan carefully pushes the door closed.

“I’m sorry, Logan.”

Logan’s eyes widen as his head jerks around to face Roman. Roman gives him what may be the smallest smile he’s ever seen before taking a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” he says again, the sincerity making the cold burn in Logan’s chest, “I didn’t mean to hurt you. It—it was stupid of me to press the ‘ignorant’ button and it was not my intention to hurt you. And I...slashing your box was wrong too. I just saw Patton get hurt and I—”

He cuts himself off and takes a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Logan," he repeats, softer this time, "for all that I have done to hurt you. I want to be better about it."

Oh. “…thank you, Roman,” Logan says carefully, “I appreciate your apology.”

Roman gives him a nod. Logan looks at Virgil, whose head still rests against the bed, staring at the two of them.

“Is this what you wanted to discuss?”

“Sort of, but…uh, Logan, you…you’re not looking so great, bud.” Virgil shifts, looking to Roman, who nods and takes a seat on the floor too, leaving a space between them. “Will you come sit with us?”

“…of course.”

Logan sits gingerly between the two of them, his gaze fixed on the outlet in the wall opposite them. He hears the rustling of fabric as Virgil shifts, and sees a little white in the corner of his eye as Roman scoots a tad closer.

“So,” Virgil murmurs after a second, “I guess this video was…hard.”

Roman huffs quietly. Logan nods. “Yes.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“Have the others not already told you?”

“I’d like to hear it from you too.”

Logan takes a deep breath, ignoring the way the cold burns the inside of his lungs. “I attempted to implement a new strategy for how I interact with you and the viewers. Instead of appearing in person, I chose to use a series of lowdowns so the information would appear in a non-invasive way.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“…keep going, L.”

“They were…not as well-received as I had anticipated.”

A flash of movement and a stifled noise make him look over. Roman fiddles with the hem of his sleeve right in front of his mouth, obviously having cut himself off. He glances over.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, “I didn’t want to interrupt. Please, continue.”

“I, er…” Logan swallows, something about the movement of Roman’s fingers holding his focus captive. “I hurt Patton.”

From his other side comes a sharp intake of breath. Logan looks away.

“I hurt Patton. I could not do my job properly. I had compromised the conversation. A ‘skip all’ button appeared and…”

“Patton pressed it,” Virgil finishes when Logan doesn’t speak, “he told me.”

Logan doesn’t say anything. The crook manifests around his throat again and he shudders.

“…Logan,” Roman’s worried voice says, even as it sounds like it’s coming from underwater, “Logan, did…what did that do to you?”

“Janus,” Logan croaks, “he—his staff, it—I—“

“Hey, hey,” Virgil croons, reaching for the hands that tug persistently at his collar, at his bandages, when did they get there?— “don’t do that, L, you’re gonna hurt yourself, stop that…”

“Logan, can I hold your hand, please?”

Logan lets Virgil tug his hands away from his neck. It—why—what’s happening?

Why are Virgil’s hands so warm?

Judging by Virgil’s expression, he’s as concerned about the stark difference in temperature as Logan is. Several emotions flit across his face before Logan can name them until they both register Roman’s question. Roman holds his hand out, all but pleading for Logan to let him.

“Please,” he whispers, his hand starting to tremble, “please, Logan, may I…can I just hold your hand?”

“Why are you so worried,” Logan wants to ask, “what is it that makes you so insistent about holding my hand?”

Instead, when his voice is barely about a strangled whisper and his first attempt makes his hand phase completely through Roman’s, the question emerges as a stifled scream.

“Shh, shh,” Roman whispers, moving in as close as he can, trying to curl his hands around where Logan’s should be, “it’s okay, it’s okay, we’ll—we’ll figure it out, Logan, we’ve got you, it’s okay—“

Roman burns.

“R-ro—“

“Easy, Roman,” Virgil mutters from behind him, “take it easy, you’re gonna freak us all out.”

“I know, I know.” Roman clutches the air of Logan’s hand tightly. “Okay…okay, Specs, we gotta…we’re gonna take some deep breaths, okay?”

No, no, it hurts when Logan does that, what’s…

He does as bid. The air whines in protest as he slowly breathes in and out, in and out, focusing on Roman’s thumb rubbing small circles into his hand. Roman seems to calm a little as he watches, bringing Logan’s hand close enough to cradle it in his lap as they breathe.

“Good,” Virgil manages, still clutching Logan’s other hand tightly, his own voice shaking slightly, “okay, now we’re all just gonna calm down, yeah? Just…nice and calm…”

Logan has no idea how long they sit there, on the floor, only that after a few more deep breaths, it no longer hurts. Roman’s hand no longer burns, it’s just warm. Virgil no longer trembles, he’s just there.

“My apologies,” he manages, “I did not mean to be so…inconvenient.”

Roman’s cry of protest is quickly accompanied by: “hey, no, none of that, Logan, you’re not being inconvenient. It’s been a hard day for all of us.”

“But was I not—“

“No,” Roman interrupts gently, “I’m sorry for interrupting, but…no, Logan. Nothing that happened today was your fault. Absolutely nothing.”

“…I’m the one who hurt Patton.”

“That was an accident and you didn’t know it was going to do that,” Roman says firmly, “and it was our fault we didn’t listen to you. So much that you felt that was your only option.”

Logan swallows. “…what about Janus?”

“What about him,” Virgil prompts, “the fact that he…came into the video?”

“It was my lowdowns that enabled him to do so.”

“And we pressed the ‘skip all’ button,” Roman says. “And I’m the one who gave him tips on how to impersonate the rest of us better.”

Roman is right, even as Logan begins to feel cold again. Still, he opens his mouth.

“I…I’m not…I can’t…it…”

“Logan,” Roman says quietly when Logan can’t seem to find the words, “none of us are angry with you. I’m certainly not angry with you, and I’m…I’m sorry about everything that I may have done and have done to give you the impression that I do not hold you in the highest esteem possible.”

Logan’s mouth drops open in shock.

“I think you overdid it a little there, Princey,” Virgil chuckles.

“But it’s true,” Roman insists, still cradling Logan’s hand in his lap, “Logan, you’re…you’re so important. And if I have done anything that makes you think I don’t care so much about you, then I…I will do everything I can to fix this.”

What?

“You…but we..we fight,” Logan manages weakly, “all the time, you…you disagree with me every chance you get, how—“

“I told you on movie night,” Roman says, the corner of his mouth tugging up, “I poke fun at the things I love.”

Love.

Logan’s brain stutters to a pause.

“You’re my family, Logan,” Roman continues, oblivious to the fact that Logan.exe has stopped functioning, please try again later, “and I…you are so clever, so sharp, so good that of course I want to talk to you about things. I respect your opinion so much and I want to hear everything.”

“Yeah, if you ever stop teaching us stuff I might actually start crying and never stop.”

“Virgil!”

“What, like you’re any better?”

“Of course not! I would be devastated!”

“Wait, wait,” Logan mumbles, “you—you what?”

“L,” Virgil calls softly, still chuckling a little as Logan turns to look at him, “L, we care about you so much. We wanted to give you space, especially after today, but…dude, you know we need you, don’t you?”

“You need Logic,” Logan mumbles, “you…of course you need Logic.”

“We do,” Roman confirms as the cold threatens to open up in Logan’s chest again, “but we also love Logan.”

“You have got to stop throwing that word around,” Virgil murmurs, “you’re gonna send him into a full-blown freak-out.”

“But we do, Virgil. We do love him, so much, and if he doesn’t know that…”

Roman squeezes a surprisingly solid hand in his lap.

“…then we have to remind him.”

Virgil huffs, scooting closer. “Yeah, well, that’s easy enough.”

No, no, it very much is not.

Logan’s brain is still struggling to come to grips with the first thing Roman said, about poking fun at the things he loves. He hasn’t come close to tackling the fact that Roman just said they loved him.

And Virgil agreed.

“This…this doesn’t make sense,” Logan says weakly, “this doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?” Virgil’s hand is a warm weight against his side. “That we love you?”

“…y-yes?”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Virgil murmurs, “what makes you so convinced that you’re unlovable?”

“I…I can’t…I am emotionally compromised. I cannot do my job properly. I will not be as useful as you—“

“Do you need to be useful to be lovable?”

“Don’t you?”

“No,” he says firmly, pressing Logan between the two of them, “no, you don’t, Logan. We love you for you, not for what you can do.”

“Don’t leave us, Logan.” The sheer amount of pain in Roman’s voice aches. ��Not because you think we won’t want you.”

A horrible laugh bubbles up in his throat. “And here I thought you were going to leave me.”

“Never,” Roman promises, “never.”

“We did threaten to break down your door because it was starting to fade from the hallway.”

“…I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

“You don’t need to know right now, we’ll help you.”

“I don’t know how good I’m going to be at this.”

“We’re all working on things, it’s okay.”

“But I—“ Logan swallows heavily— “I don’t know if I can stop believing that I…that it is just Logic you want and not Logan.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Roman calls, squeezing his hand, “I still struggle with that too.”

Logan’s eyes widen. “You what?”

“Believe that you only keep me around as long as I make things that you think are useful?” Roman smiles sadly. “Yeah.”

“But you’re—you—Thomas would not be able to exist without you!”

“Wouldn’t he?”

“No! It’s not just—Roman, you’re so much more than Creativity, if you weren’t here, we…” Logan takes a deep breath and swallows. “Something would truly be lost if you weren’t here.”

He stops.

“…oh.”

“Yeah, Specs,” Roman whispers, “‘oh.’”

“…oh.”

“Come here, sweetheart,” he murmurs, opening his arms and letting Logan fall into his embrace, “don’t you leave us, okay?”

Virgil drapes himself over them, wrapping his arms tightly around Logan’s waist. “We’ll figure it out, L, but you gotta stick around, okay? Don’t—well, try not to worry about whether or not you’re being the perfect Logic. We want you.”

“…promise?”

“I promise.”

“I promise too,” Roman murmurs, letting Logan rest against his chest, “now why don’t we all get into something more comfortable and we can have another look at your neck?”

“Yes. That sounds…good.”

“And Logan?” Logan cranes his head up to look. “If you ever stop teaching us things and telling me about stuff I will start crying.”

Despite everything, Logan smiles.

“Don’t worry,” he says quietly, the chill finally beginning to thaw, “I’m not going anywhere.”

If you want to be added/taken off the taglist let me know!

#sanders sides #fic #dragonbabbles #logan sanders #logan angst #roman sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #deceit sanders #logince #analogical #analogince

341 notes · View notes

bewaretheidesofmarchyall · 4 years

Text

Soulmate Shenanigans Five: The Order Of The Shenanigans

Hey! Guess who has returned?

Me!

Just the March doing her prompt writing thing, as seen on previous episodes :)

Parts one, two, three, and four here!

Prompt #5

Any intense emotions your soulmate feels you will also experience

Warnings for kidnapping mention and gifted kid “potential” mention

Okay. Not going to lie, I kind of tweaked the concept, but I like how it turned out. The idea of the sides having sides in human AUs has been in my brain, and now it’s in yours!

World Building

At first, the symptoms of having a soulmate was seen as symptoms of witchcraft

It was a reasonable assumption to make, as seeing into someone’s head and emotions wasn’t really a thing that humans did.

However, as the population grew and communication across the globe became a thing, the instances of people finding their soulmates grew as well, and not everyone could be a witch (or, if they were, being a witch was simply being human).

It took a while for the culture around soulmates to shift, but shift it did, and people eventually figured out “Oh, that person is my soulmate, not my eternal enemy that I need to destroy via my demonic powers, which I totally have”

But people’s minds are kind of a lot, and it’s hard to process it all.

So, in modern day, people have learned to separate the pieces of their soulmate’s personality that they get bombarded with into different pieces, or sides

The sides are Logic, Morality/Emotions, Creativity (with there sometimes being a divide between dark and light), Self-Preservation, and Anxiety.

Characters

Roman: Roman is looking forward to meeting his soulmate so much!

Just...later.

When he’s a famous writer and people know about him and he’s evened out his insecurities and he deserves them!

Being perfect for them is going to take work, but most people meet their soulmates over 30, so he’s got at least fifteen years to prepare.

Until then, he was working on his fantasy story and dreaming of the day he’d get published or get the lead in a school play.

The writing club had been his idea, so you could say that everything that happens in the story was his fault. He’d just wanted to be around people who liked the same things he liked!

Roman’s Sides, ranked in order of how much control they have:

Note: Names are hard. Aaaagh.

Magnus, his creativity, romance, passion, etcetera. Magnus is really the one who calls the shots around here. He’s just as goofy of a fifteen year old (if not more) as Roman, but he has the unenviable position of running a mind palace and being the ego of someone who hates himself.

This guy just wants to listen to Hamilton, but noooo, he had to have an evil reflection of himself and self-worth issues.

The Count, his self-preservation and pretty much Roman’s inner Roxie Hart/Velma Kelly. Randomly suggests poisoning their mortal enemies a lot (note: they don’t have mortal enemies).

The most like canon Janus out of any of the self preservations, except instead of “we live in a society” it’s more “fuck it, we’re going to be *famous*!”

The other sides will pay him to stop saying, “that’s showbiz”

The Medic, his morality and emotions. Sort of has a medieval healer thing going on (which means herbs in a satchel, not plague doctor mask).

A lovely person on his own, but when he and The Guard team up, it’s ✨Guilt time!✨

He has the question of “Am I a terrible person?” on his hands, so...good luck to him. He’s trying to hold the five of them into a cohesive unit, but it’s hard!

The Guard, his fears and anxious thoughts. He has a shield and a spear, and is kind of dressed like a (dark and stormy) knight.

No one particularly likes him, but it’s his job to recognize The Shadow, so they all need him.

He hangs around on the outskirts of the mindscape, ever vigilant.

The Alchemist, his logic. No one listens to the voice of reason in this house. Al isn’t really a fan of this, and being Roman’s logic, he thinks that if he can find a way to prove himself it’ll turn out okay.

The Shadow, everything Magnus discarded. You could call him dark creativity, but he’s a lot more.

They used to call him Rex, when they were kids.

Patton: Patton isn’t thrilled with having to move to a new school, but he’s keeping a positive attitude

The new town is creepy and making friends is harder than he thought, and he just wants to right a sappy love story about ghosts without feeling sad.

But if he keeps his chin up, he knows it’ll all be fine!

And hey, maybe he’ll find people who like him in this writing club thing!

Patton’s Sides, ranked in order of how much control they have:

Patrick, his morality and emotions. Patrick feels all of the loneliness and desperation that Patton feels daily, but pretends he doesn’t feel it, since he has to be there for them!

Them meaning his family, meaning the rest of Patton’s mind, as well as Patton, since he’s kind of an older brother/role model to the guy.

Covering the full scope of human emotions isn’t great when the other half of your job is enforcing the sense of right and wrong (and the general consensus in Patton’s head is showing negative emotions = burden = wrong).

None of them can cook, but that won’t stop him from trying!

The Canary, his fears and anxious thoughts. Constantly popping up to remind everyone that they’re failing. It’s kind of his job.

Stress plays the piano when things get to be too much.

The Gardener, his creativity, romance, and passion. Conjures flowers a lot. Projects wishes for a soulmate into the sappy ghost love story, which he’s mostly in charge of writing.

Hasn’t split yet, but that’s mostly because nearly all of Patton’s negative impulses that would be considered “dark creativity” already come from The Miser.

Dr. Picani, his logical side. Knows everything about cartoons, and tries to be professional, but a complete sweetheart.

Secretly knows his name is Emile, but is waiting for the best moment to tell everyone.

The Miser, his self-preservation and deceitful side. No one’s a fan of him. Patrick is kind of his mortal nemesis (in the sense that Patrick claimed the title and he just kind of went along with it?)

Everyone else in the Pattonsphere refuses to curse, but he says many a “fuck” with ease

Trying to protect The Gardener from splitting by taking responsibility for most of the things a dark creativity would do.

Virgil: Virgil just didn’t want to join the yearbook committee.

It was irrational, maybe, to have a deep rooted hatred of the yearbook committee.

They were just trying to categorize things, design pages-it wasn’t malicious!

And yet, being in that classroom and seeing Amelia’s dead eyes and smile near rang every alarm bell in his system, so he needed a way out this year.

His parents weren’t going to let him not choose an activity, so he flipped a coin and ended up in some writing club.

He came into the club determined to fake some pretentious poetry about death. Just because they say the club’s about expression or whatever doesn’t mean that they can know anything about his comics.

Virgil’s Sides, ranked in order of how much control they have:

Dante, his fears and anxious thoughts. Dante has too many eyes. Dante is lowkey a cryptid, but he’s sadly a cryptid in charge of life decisions.

There’s no way to dance around it. Dante’s a spider-human hybrid.

Dante would prefer they never be perceived by anyone for anything. He does not want to be seen, he does not want to be heard, he does not want to be perceived. Period.

But he’s a very conspicuous spider-human hybrid.

The Competent One, The One Who Can Actually Do Math, Steve, whatever you want to call him, he’s Virgil’s logical side.

His theories are just....

See that image? That kind of sums up his characterization.

Parker, his creativity, romance, and heroic side. He’s the one who got them obsessed with comic books, and is trying to write his own. If people don’t like the comics, he’ll probably just start screaming and never stop

He gets the purple eyeshadow!

Remy, his self-preservation. He mainly just wants Virgil to just...rest

Nap. Sleep. Take a self-care day. This is Remy’s goal.

Also to continue to have the most style out of anyone in the Virgilsphere

Remy has a talent for never being anywhere at the right time, and then popping up at the worst moments, caffeine in hand.

Tam, his morality and emotions. The most into the emo phase out of any of them, since he feels all angst!

Sometimes just hovers and screams. Everyone’s pretty used to this.

Logan: Logan was trying to ignore the things he’d seen

Logan was a scientific guy. He knew that magic wasn’t real, that the fae were just stories.

So, clearly, the nightmarish things he’d seen that night were just that: nightmares. Just nightmares caused by stress over his academic struggles.

That was the immediate problem at hand: academic struggles. Logan was always the top of his class his whole life, and words like “gifted” were thrown around. Lately, however, things have been harder to keep up with and pay attention to, and it’s a bit of a mess.

Logan joined the writing club because he thought it might help him with English class, and he did like speculative fiction.

But, more importantly, he joined it because he thought it would be a simple task he could easily ace, so he wouldn’t have to keep being told that he wasn’t trying.

Logan’s Sides, ranked in order of how much control they have:

Mimir, his logical side. Mimir is pushing himself to take care of all academic matters and keep Logan afloat.

Mimir is over his head, but doesn’t really have anyone to talk to (or so he thinks), so he’s just putting Warby Parkers over his panic and faking cold distance to make everyone think he’s doing okay.

Alastor, his moral side. Half of his job is repressing Logan’s emotions, which isn’t a great thing to be doing, but he think he’s doing it for a good reason.

Kinda strict and blaming Mimir for everything going wrong. He does care about the others, he’s just bad at showing it.

Cassandros, his fears and anxious thoughts.

This dude-

He’s basically just [puts feet on coffee table] “Hey, did you know everyone hates us?? I made a PowerPoint that proves it!”

He’ll get character development, though.

The Chessmaster, his overdramatic self-preservation.

Tries to be clever, walks into walls.

The Detective, his creative and fanciful side. He wants to swashbuckle, but instead he’s restrained to geometry.

But now he has a project in the writing club! He has something to do!

And The Mad Scientist is trying to ruin it!

The Mad Scientist, Logan’s dark creativity.

They never used to care about the creative side one way or another. There was no need to make a dark side when it was already looked down upon.

Now, however, there are things in Logan’s mind that he’s trying not to think about, and so the Mad Scientist has joined the fray.

The Actual Plot

This is going to be an actual fic that I write. So, I’m not going to fill out the entire plot here.

I can, however say a few of the plot lines

Plot One: Everyone’s sides are in a state of constant screaming and must learn to communicate.

They also need to let their main guys figure out they have soulmates, because they’re all repressing that information for their own reasons.

Plot Two: LAMP in a writing club, falling in love and being disturbed by first drafts!

Plot Three: The fae are kidnapping people.

And everyone needs to get them to Stop.

I guess you could call this a trailer??

I JUST REALLY LIKE THIS IDEA

15 notes · View notes