#like before virgil was part of it but still technically there

[whatgaviiformes]

Fic: Reflection 2/2

First Part here or Ao3 here Summary: Gordon stares at himself. In part 2 - ...and Virgil watches Words: <1K ~*~*~

Reflection - part 2

Virgil’s got a pretty good sense of what goes on in his periphery. 

Granted, he doesn't immediately scan for entryways and nearest exits every time he enters a room the way his security-inclined siblings do. Kayo somehow manages to do it without an obvious deviation to her gaze, so it's not apparent at all that that's what's happening. But it is, and it speaks volumes to his sister's ability to multitask. 

But this doesn't preclude Virgil from being in tune with what's happening around him. He may not be able to sense danger from the way someone’s shoulders hunch to hide themselves when entering a building, but he does have a strong sense of observation when it comes to what he knows well, or what he wants to know well. Things like the island landscape he's painted a thousand times and more; the exact paint hues he needs to combine to create the sapphire in his baby brother's eyes; the number of wrinkles on Scott’s shirt to know if he actually slept that night; how jittery John is in his fingers incremental to his caffeine intake. 

Things like that. 

So when Gordon rotates his shoulders and eases back to sit on his heels, Virgil notices the movement. He doesn't say anything right away because the moment doesn't warrant it. The chore is a little too heavy for ribbing about laziness, which would be the appropriate response if it were any other type of rescue. As it is, they are both trying to forget about the losses made all too real by the lingering mud on Two’s windshield, caked on so firmly that the water jets only managed to release about two thirds of it. The rest was down to human persistence. 

Gordon's persistence. 

And his own. 

For him, it hurts when he lets himself think about it too much, which is why Virgil buries his ears in Beethoven’s 7th and lets the ache of the composer’s hearing loss envelop him instead while he listens for shifting key centers and tension tossed between instrumentation. The technical music analysis keeps his brain from wandering back to muddied faces, slack with breathlessness. Except for in the second movement, admittedly. Allegretto wasn’t just “less lively.” She was brutal, and his eyes may have blurred with sadness in the key of A-minor for just a moment while faces swam in the glass. 

It still helps. Somehow. The painful reminder of human experience.

So that’s him - his heartbeat so firmly tied to the environment around him: the shape of its sounds and the timbre of its sights. He carries on because he must. 

When it comes to Gordon, though? His brother is perseverance embodied - all the determination of an Olympian, resolve of a soldier, courage of a survivor, and tenacity of someone who gets up every morning balancing chronic injury with self-care and selflessness. His backbone might be physically lighter after surgery, but it’s equally fiercer.

Gordon’s been doing this work in silence, and Virgil wonders exactly what he’s been thinking while Virgil’s been drowning screams with violins. He knows it is possible for Gordon to detach, become the soldier he was trained to be. But it’s rare for their resident aquanaut to let Virgil witness it. Those experiences are something Gordon will channel with Scott, every now and again. 

But Virgil has seen it before - regretfully.  And this isn’t it. 

Virgil squeezes his eyes closed, and when he opens them Gordon’s pressed his fingertips to his mouth, a strange expression on his face while his eyes lock on the crisscrossing of scars near his hairline. Painful memory or badge of honor? Virgil wonders. A little of column A, a little of column B. From his experience, nothing was ever so black and white. 

He just hopes that when Gordon looks at himself in the mirror, when he’s not smiling for the rest of the world to see, he still notices the bravery and feels every iota of admiration marked with his name. Just as on more than one occasion, Scott has reminded Virgil of the same. It’s inherent in human nature to be harder on ourselves, to sometimes see ourselves so differently than those around us. It was never so obvious to Virgil as when he sketched the first draft of each of their portraits. Scott the commander, John the intelligent, Gordon the tenacious, Alan the boy genius. Himself? The supporting role. Scott had shaken his head and called him the heartbeat while Virgil flushed with embarrassment and confusion. Then, he asked Virgil to try again, until he was satisfied that Virgil’s self-portrait captured what the others saw in him. 

Shoulders straighter, wider in the frame. Eyes more confident, but softer, kinder. 

Eventually, Gordon catches him watching. It was bound to happen; they’ve worked together too long and traveled too far for them not to be in tune with the other. In barely a blink,  in front of him is the man he painted all those years ago, scars and all, but eyes carrying the blinding gleam and the joyful spirit of a man who would always get back up again and smile. 

He shifts his earphones, Beethoven barely audible as if through a fog, and Virgil asks genuinely if he’s ok. Gordon, true to form, plays it off with a joke and a smile, even though they both know it’s what they call “a moment.” They’ve had many over the years. This is just another, and it won’t be the last. 

This part isn’t keen observation; it’s intuition. Virgil just knows that this moment isn’t one he needs to press. Gordon’s ok. They both will be. 

So he grins back at him, gives Gordon the lighthearted response he knows he needs, and resets his music. 

Virgil takes a breath, emboldened by his brother’s endurance beside him.

And then he keeps going.

#gavii scribit #for the love of fishtank #gordon tracy #virgil tracy #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction

[anxiousgaypanicking]

Oreo

Synopsis:  As a joke, Roman's forced to ask Virgil out after losing an oreo. Flustered, and somewhat embarrassed and humiliated by the connotation that dating him would be such a bad thing, he says yes out of impulse, and must now deal with what being Roman's "boyfriend" entails. Taglist: @renys @falsemood

Part Five: Oversleeping Masterlist

Does he even have a reason to despise Roman? A real reason? 

He knows he hates Remus, but he can’t drag Roman into his brother’s bullying. Well, technically he could, but it’d be immature. 

Huffing, Virgil tries to think of a reason - perhaps an annoying interaction they’ve had or teasing that was taken too far - but he ultimately comes up short. He just seemingly decided one day after seeing him around Remus that he didn’t like the man. Overlooking the fact they’re brothers in order to justify his bitterness. 

Virgil squeezes his eyes shut. 

Okay, he’ll admit that was a bit unfair of him. Deciding that he didn’t like Roman just because of who he’s related to was silly. 

But, at the same time, Remus harassed him and his friends constantly. How could someone as wonderful and caring as Roman be related to someone who’s so pathetic that he picks on other people to feel some semblance of self worth? 

Virgil’s fists roughly hit against his pillows, letting out a frustrated groan as he struggles to sift through the thoughts flooding within his mind like unruly waves crashing against a beach. He can’t focus on anything for more than a few seconds; a thought would come, he’d feel guilt or justification, and then a new thought would take its place. 

He sits back up, adjusting his position on the couch, before he turns and presses his face into a new cushion. Closing his eyes once again, the “date” he’d just gone on plays in his mind like a movie. 

Roman’s smile… The ease by which he talked... 

And his laughter. 

Virgil pulls his knees up to his chest, sighing as he urges himself to relax. The sweet taste of a milkshake on his tongue seems to linger. A wave of exhaustion overtakes him as the exertion of today finally catches up. He’s not an extrovert by any means, and spending the entire day out with Roman was taking a toll. 

He leans back on the couch, yawning dramatically, before pushing his face hard into one of the cushions. He lets his eyes close. The date seems to play in his mind like a movie, and he lets the memory of Roman’s soft chuckle lull him to sleep. 

***

He wakes up the next morning with a headache. 

His phone is beeping repeatedly, and when Virgil looks at him, he’s quick to push himself onto his feet. 

Groaning as a wave of vertigo overtakes him, he watches a call from Janus suddenly end, adding to a culmination of missed calls currently capped at “16,” but still threatening to increase. He doesn’t bother answering, instead quickly unlocking his phone as he stumbles towards his room, being met with a barrage of texts including ‘where are you?’ and ‘class started fifteen minutes ago!’

Fifteen minutes. And to make matters worse, Virgil can tell he’d overslept, meaning he feels exhausted as ever. Next time he gets home early from a date, he’ll try to keep himself up until ten. 

Quickly, Virgil sends an ‘i overslept’ text to the group chat, met with the singular reaction of a thumbs-down emoji from Logan. Truly helpful. 

He quickly gets ready, shrugging off his dirty clothes in favor of a different hoodie and another pair of black jeans, before patting his pocket to make sure he has his house key. He throws his backpack over his shoulders, and nearly trips down the stairs. 

Under his breath he curses himself for putting off getting his driver’s license. It’s not a long walk by any means, but with him already being late, having a quicker mode of transportation would definitely help. 

Essentially sprinting, he can feel himself getting sweaty, and he shakes his head and groans as he realizes he forgot deodorant or toothpaste. Gross. 

When he finally hauls his ass into school, he desperately explains his situation to the main office, and is given a late pass which he shamefully carries as he makes his way to his first class. He looks a mess, and he knows it, and so tries to keep his head down as he walks inside. 

Every head raises to stare at him, including Janus’s, and the teachers. He shifts uncomfortably where he stands. 

"Mr. Addams," she addresses him, sounding rather annoyed. "Glad to see you're finally joining us. Do you have a pass?” 

Virgil raises her arm to hand her the slip, and she reads over it before nodding and setting it on her desk. 

“The office will adjust your attendance,” she says, dismissively, and Virgil walks to his desk in the back of the room. His chest aches as he feels everyone’s eyes following him. How stupid does he look? Did he remember to lock the front door?

He collapses into his seat, feeling his legs throb as he keeps a hand on his chest, trying to steady his breathing. Running here took so much effort, and keeping his eyes open wasn’t proving to be any easier. He feels as though he’s going to fall to the ground unconscious at any moment. 

He resists the urge to lay his head down on his desk, and tries his best to pay attention, not wanting to upset his teacher any further. She already wasn’t pleased with him; he’d hate to do something that would result in a stern talking-to, or even worse, a referral. 

In the corner of his eye, Virgil watches Janus type on his phone under the desk, though his head stays straight. His eyes look between Virgil and the teacher. Though he’s curious, Virgil doesn’t bother to check the vibrating phone in his pocket, not wanting to risk fumbling and dropping it. He’d already drawn enough attention toward himself today. 

Thankfully, the bell rings after just a short while for Virgil, and he trudges out of the room, Janus at his side.

“Geez, you look like shit,” he comments, making Virgil roll his eyes. He rubs at his face, focusing around his eyes, as he tries to wake himself up more. “How are you feeling?” 

“Like I might pass out,” Virgil groggily responds, before forcing himself to stretch. As he reaches his arms over his head, he lets out a slight groan, and then relaxes again. It didn’t help much, but his body feels less strained. 

Janus sets a hand on his back. It’s a light touch, but it’s clear he’s helping guide Virgil, if only a bit. 

That doesn’t keep Janus from grinning, though. “Don’t worry. All you have to do is stay alive until lunch, and then you can fall asleep on that hunk of a boyfriend you have.” Janus wiggles his eyebrows, attempting to entice some bitter or embarrassed refute from Virgil, but all he gets is a slight hum in response. 

Janus whistles. “You must really be tired, hm? Not a glare? No shoulder punch?” He stops their walking to set the back of his hand against Virgil’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re just feeling tired? You’re not running a fever or anything, are you?” 

Virgil finally scoffs, and pushes Janus’s hand away. Janus was right in a sense though. He just had to make it to lunch. Then, he could take a quick nap! Hopefully, he’d feel better after that.

Thank god tomorrow was Friday.

Virgil sleepwalks through his next few classes, but it doesn’t seem like any of his teachers notice. Janus and Logan accompany him through a few of them, but he hardly notices. With his head down, he struggles to keep awake, and resorts to kicking his leg in order to stay awake.

Finally, after what seems like centuries to Virgil, lunch comes around. 

His eyes burn, and he feels like he’s shaking with every step he takes. He just needs to make it to the cafeteria. Then, he’ll be okay. 

As he’s walking - rather slowly - towards the loud chatter and open double-doors, an arm wraps around his shoulders. Virgil jumps, and stiffens as he cranes his neck upwards, only to see Roman. 

“Lacking the pep in your step, I see,” Roman jokes, and Virgil can’t help the small smile that graces his lips. 

“I’m tired,” Virgil clarifies, as he lets Roman guide him forward.

Roman chuckles. "You shouldn't be; you told the teacher you overslept.”

Virgil rolls his eyes, but Roman suggests “you can nap at lunch. I don’t think all the screaming would make the greatest white noise, but to each their own.” 

Virgil laughs softly. “Janus told me a similar thing.” He leaves out the bit where Janus joked about Virgil falling asleep against Roman. Being reminded of that, he’s quick to pull himself away from Roman, who eases his grip and allows Virgil to do so. 

People whisper as they pass. It was still big news that Roman decided to date some social outcast! Virgil still needed to ask how people found out about that, though, with Roman’s love for affection and his brother’s big mouth, he definitely had a few guesses. 

Once they sit down at their table, Virgil immediately slumps over it, and tucks his head into his arms. Roman, who’s apparently decided this was his new table as well, pats Virgil’s back comfortingly. 

“I take it you’re no longer completely against dating Roman?” Janus teases, alluding to the fact they walked in together. 

Virgil just shrugs, too lethargic to care at the moment. 

Janus laughs. “Better watch out, Roman! Virgil might actually be falling in love with you.” He winks, and Roman smiles, but Virgil lets out a string of muffled words at Janus’s teasing. 

They’re mostly incoherent, but Janus can just assume the obvious; Virgil was obviously saying something along the lines of “I could never fall in love with someone like him.” 

Roman has no qualms laughing at Janus’s words, though, cheeks a nice pink at the idea. Virgil actually falling in love with him? Never. And Roman becoming equally smitten? He doesn’t see it happening. 

There were no real romantic feelings between them, and Roman knew that. But he’s not a quitter, and if Virgil insists on being in this “relationship,” then Roman will make sure it’s the best relationship Virgil’s ever partaken in. 

Sneaking a glance downwards, Roman’s met with Virgil’s (supposedly) sleeping figure. He was breathing rhythmically, so Roman assumes he’s finally managed to drift off. 

Out of courtesy, Roman lowers his voice, and when Logan finally comes over to join them, he does the same. Logan has a book out as he eats, but he has no problem talking while reading, as if that wasn’t an impressive task. And as lunch carries on, Logan and Janus become more invested in each other, leaving Roman to eat his lunch quietly, side-by-side with Virgil. 

When the bell rings, Janus and Logan get up and walk off together, leaving Roman with a sleeping Virgil. 

With a sigh, Roman gently shakes Virgil awake. Virgil groans, before weakly swatting at Roman’s hands. His accuracy is horrid, but Roman’s arms retreat anyway, giving Virgil space to stretch. 

“Don’t touch me… you heathen….” Virgil yawns, blinking his eyes open. 

Roman grins. “Heathen? That’s an awfully mean thing to call somebody who’s looking out for you. Here I am, selflessly making sure you get to your next class on time, and you insult me.” Roman sets a hand on his chest, feigning being struck, as if Virgil’s insult had punched him square in the torso. 

Virgil stands, yawning again, before cracking his back. Then, he begins walking. Roman walks with him. They don’t share the same class this period, but it’s in the same general direction.

“Believe me, Roman, I could call you worse,” Virgil threatens, voice gravelly. He still sounds exhausted, but he looks a bit better. Hopefully, with a quick cat-nap, he’d be better suited to finish the rest of the day. 

Roman laughs, but doesn’t respond. Silently, they head to Virgil’s class, before Roman waves and turns away to walk to his own, leaving Virgil to settle himself at his desk. 

Their afternoon classes are uneventful, and the two are both fairly happy when the dismissal bell rings. Roman runs to his locker, which is already swarmed with fellow football players, other boys trying to associate with the “cool” jocks, and girls desperate to talk to them. 

He manages to worm his way to his locker, but in attempting to grab his stuff and leave, he’s stopped by Remus. 

“Hey, loser,” Remus greets him, with a wide smile. He’s leaning against the locker next to Roman’s. “Have you convinced that outcast to break up with you yet?” Remus picks at his teeth with his pinky as he waits for an answer, seemingly intrigued. 

“No,” Roman replies, as he shuts his locker a bit louder than necessary. “I haven’t been trying.” 

Remus looks a little surprised. “Why not? Don’t tell me you actually caught feelings for that accident?” 

Roman narrows his eyes, turning to Remus with comically red cheeks. He was frustrated, but such a look could easily be mistaken for fluster. A strange compulsion to defend Virgil wells up in his chest. Maybe it was because Virgil wasn’t here to stick up for himself. 

“So what if I have?” is his immediate jest, threatening Remus to raise any sort of objection. “Is that such a problem?” There’s a glare not normally present in his soft green eyes, and it makes Remus jut his chin out in a mixture of curiosity, and amusement. 

Roman doesn’t actually have feelings for Virgil, but he has respect and basic decency. Unlike Remus, apparently.

“You barely know him,” Roman continues, as the increasing volume of his voice draws the attention of the people around them, “and from what I’ve seen, he’s a better person than you are.” 

“That’s not a hard bar to surpass.” 

Roman groans, before stomping his foot dramatically. “Whatever, Remus! Get out of my way; I’m going to see my boyfriend.” 

He pushes past Remus, purposely bumping his shoulder against his brother’s, before stomping off, leaving Remus there, intrigued. 

Roman takes deep breaths as he makes his way to Virgil’s locker, where he hopes the latter is. And he’s pleased when he sees Virgil there, though Virgil looks exhausted. 

His forehead is pressed against his locker, eyes closed. He was holding his bag by his strap, though it hangs down, being drawn to the floor. 

Roman sets a hand on Virgil’s shoulder, and apologizes immediately when Virgil jumps. His eyes are wide as he stares at Roman, before sighing out a short “what do you want?” Ever so polite, Virgil wastes no time getting straight to the point.

Roman smiles. “I came to ask if you wanted to come over!” 

“Why?” Virgil responds, voice sounding tired. It’s enough to make Roman shift his weight from one leg to the other, debating whether or not he should just drop the topic. 

“You mentioned earlier that you didn’t like being alone,” Roman replies, smile faltering slightly. “I came to provide you an alternate option!”

“Who said I’d want to spend time with you instead?” 

Roman lets out a sigh, adjusting the bag on his back. “I guess you have a point. I’ll take that as a no, then.” He turns to leave. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow-” 

His hand is immediately grabbed, and Roman turns to see Virgil looking a little anxious. He quickly masks it when they make eye contact, and releases Roman’s hand just as quickly.

“I never said no,” Virgil replies, wiping his hand on his pants as though Roman had infected it with germs. “I’ll come over. Are your parents okay with this?” 

Roman just shrugs in response, but he smiles wide. “I’m sure they won’t mind.” 

He takes hold of Virgil’s hand, pulling him through the school and out the front door. He pulls a pair of car keys out of his pocket, and leads Virgil to a slick, white car. Not a single splatter of mud or pile of bird shit over it. Roman unlocks it, and even opens the passenger side door for him.

The seats are comfy, and Virgil settles into his with a pleased groan, as Roman gets into the driver’s side and starts the car. 

“I could fall asleep right now,” Virgil comments, making Roman laugh. 

“It’s a short drive,” he assures Virgil. “I have a comfy bed you can fall asleep on at home instead.” 

Virgil lets his head fall to the side, staring at the window as Roman drives them out of the school parking lot, and down the street. They go straight for a while, before Roman turns down a certain street. The houses lining the sidewalk were giant, and looked incredibly old. 

Virgil’s eyes go wide. 

“The historical district?” Virgil exclaims, pressing his forehead against the window. “But… but the houses here are super expensive! Do you really live here?” 

Roman nods, and slows his car as he turns and drives up a nice paved driveway, leaving Virgil to stare at the large house they’re pulling up to. It’s white with many, many windows, and a faded blue roof. Large pillars act as support, and a giant yard is freshly trimmed, with marble decorations. Flowers grow along the driveway and the path to the front door. 

Roman parks the car on the driveway, behind two black cars parked side by side. He pulls a key out of his pocket and walks Virgil to the front door, before unlocking it. He shuts the door behind them, and then interlocks his arm with Virgil’s. 

“Dad, Papa, I’m home!” Roman then calls, giving Virgil’s arm an assuring squeeze. “And I brought somebody you might want to meet!”

#prinxiety #prinxiety fic #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #agp fic #oreo fic #prinxiety fluff

[ashs-random-writing]

Witch Patton One-shots

Part 3

Ao3

—

Patton has magic. But, that doesn’t mean he knows how to use it

—

No Janus this chapter, he’s having a well deserved nap

Roman absolutely did not enjoy, nor deserve the curse that had befallen him. Even if the head scratches from Patton were nice and the naps felt better in this form, and he was getting a lot of attention, it didn’t mean he was happy with it.

Those were just the few upsides.

There were plenty of downsides as well, like the little snake that happened to also live with them. Unfortunate circumstances had forced him to have to spend a lot of time with him

Roman could admit that he wasn’t always the nicest to Janus, but he was still never truly, truly mean. He just made fun of their height a few times, and their hissing and their tendency to nap all day

He didn’t really be mean..

Janus didn’t like him because of that, though, which made the fact that Janus was the only one who could understand him at the moment a very bad thing.

Roman always found his words mistranslated by the snake, which was the most annoying and awful part of this curse. And, that he couldn’t even get an inaccurate translation or an accurate translation if Janus was sleeping.

Like right now. Patton was cleaning around the house and Janus was sleeping, so every complaint, comment or other communications went completely untranslated. He followed Patton around, still voicing his complaints anyway

“And- and then, obviously I was going to go there, but that little snake made me go try to wake you up and got me cursed, and then I had to cancel, and now I’m still stuck like this, and-“

Patton paused his cleaning for a second and looked down at his little cat form

“Roman, you know I can’t understand you, and you know that Janus is napping. I don’t know what you’re complaining about. Is it something that can be fixed right now?”

He was almost offended at Patton’s assumption that it was a complaint, before he remembered that Patton could sense emotion.

He shook his head no.

“Okay, then can your complaints wait until later? Virgil is visiting soon, and I need to make sure I don’t have anything else to do before he gets here,” Patton smiled, scratching behind his ears

Roman couldn’t help but purr, pushing his head further into the hand.

He could practically feel Patton’s smile. Patton had always liked cats, despite his mild allergy.

Roman had to wait for a while before anything happened. Janus was still sleeping, but now in full snake form in the terrarium to prepare for Virgil’s visit.

Roman, and he’d certainly be lording this over the snake, could wander wherever he wanted.

Virgil arrived and his eyes immediately set upon Roman

“Oh! I, uh, I didn’t know you got a cat,” he said, turning to Patton. Roman meowed in acknowledgment

He didn’t always like that he was the only one of Patton’s friends that knew about magic, especially since it meant keeping secrets, something that he was admittedly bad at

Patton rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly

“Yeah, uh, he’s not mine, technically, this is only temporary. But, uh, we don’t really know for how long” he answered

Roman was often amazed by how Patton managed to hide his magic without lying once.

“Aw, what’s his name?” Virgil asked, almost uncharacteristically happy

Of course, Roman knew that Virgil had a soft spot for cats, but he hadn’t really seen it that often. It was strange to be on the receiving end of this affection, as Virgil got closer and started stroking his head and scratching under his chin

Roman liked it. Roman had always loved attention, and physical touch, but he never really liked asking for it. This was definitely welcome, he decided.

He could feel himself purring. Virgil was talking to Patton, and he could hear the smile in both of their voices. He ignored that. He was happy at the moment, which was somewhat of a rare occurrence in this form

He didn’t care what they were talking about, but he did care when the petting stopped. As much as he hated being a cat, he enjoyed the attention very very much

“Hey!” He complained, pawing at Virgil’s leg “Why’d you stop?”

He could hear Virgil’s laughing, before the human looked back at Patton

“Do you think little Pumpkin here might want a little more attention?” He joked, reaching out to pet him again. Roman pushed his head into the hand and purred loudly

“Thank you,” he said, resting his head on his friend’s lap

The conversation between his currently human friends progressed, and he admittedly fell asleep with Virgil lightly petting him

He woke up when Virgil gently pushed his head off his lap

“Sorry, I need to go,” Virgil apologised to the ‘cat’, before standing up

“Bye, Patton. Oh, and tell Roman hi from me, I haven’t been able to get a hold of him since he’s gone to visit his brother,”

Roman kneaded the fabric of the couch beneath him and listened to the conversation with a somewhat sinking feeling in his chest.

Right. He couldn’t answer his phone, or text messages. It probably looked like he went missing. He kinda did.

The only people who knew what happened to him were Patton, and Remus. And, Janus of course, but Roman decided he didn’t count

He watched Virgil leave a few minutes later with a few feelings of sadness.

Virgil didn’t even know what had happened to him. Virgil was his friend, and he didn’t even know the truth about where Roman was.

Patton sat down on the couch next to him

“What’s got you all upset, huh?” Patton asked, his usual soft tone laced with concern. Roman flopped down into a lying position dramatically

“Everything!” He lamented “I don’t like being a cat, I want to be me!”

Patton gently ran a thumb over his head

“Sorry, Ro… I still can’t understand you. Do you want me to go get Janus and he can translate for me?”

Roman felt like that would be a bad idea. Janus didn’t like him, and would probably make fun of his upsetness. He’d probably deserve it.

Patton seemed to pick up on how that idea made him more upset, and quickly dismissed it

“Okay, so no Janus… do you want me to sit with you until you feel better, Ro?” Patton asked.

He asked all the time when Roman was upset and usually didn’t want to talk about it. Roman nodded.

Patton gently pet his head and sat closer to him. Roman started making a noise that, had he been human, would’ve been sobs, but sounded different in a way he couldn’t quite articulate now that he was a cat

He sat next to Patton for hours, and he didn’t seem to feel any better

“If… if it makes you feel any better, I’m getting a lot better at magic now, so… you’ll be back to normal soon enough,” Patton tried after a long while sat in silence

Roman meowed a small acknowledgement of that.

He’d rather not be like this in the first place. Patton hummed in sympathy, and gently scratched behind his ears

“You’ll be back to normal. I won’t let you stay like this forever, I promise. I will get you back,” he whispered

Roman leant further into the hand.

“I know,” he replied.

—

@a-chilly-pepper @da3dm

#sanders sides gt #sanders sides fic #sanders sides story #sanders sides g/t #giant/tiny #giant tiny #sanders sides au #g/t #sanders sides #sanders side fic #cats

[touyubesposts]

Ghosts aren’t Real (Part 1/?)

Hey, this is my first Storytime Big Bang (@tss-storytime) submission! It was very fun, even thought here were a couple of road blocks (Mostly my fault. 😅) I was partnered with @pizza-box-raccoon, who has some amazing art! (Some of the best IMO.) Their art is here, go check it out! There's nothing too serious in this chapter (or in the next one (I think)) but look at the tags and keep them in mind just in case ❤️

Summary: After a ‘Ghost’ knocks over something in his kitchen while he was coming up with video ideas with friends, Quill and Davi come up with the idea to go ghost hunting in his house. Virgil is scared that they’ll somehow get detected, but Logan is less convinced. Because Ghosts aren’t real… Right?

Rating: PG?

Word Count: 2135 (A short read :))

Ships: None, everything is purely platonic

CW: Mentions of death, Negative thinking, Remus being Remus, if I miss anything let me know 👍

(Fanfic under cut)

(Thomas's P.O.V)

"- So yeah, that could be a fun video idea," Davi finishes up his statement, taking a bite of Chinese food.

Quil chimes in, "Yeah, I could see that, but we don't have a pool."

"There are public pools."

We were talking on the couch about video ideas and things the others wanted to do, trying to come up with ideas while also talking a bit about how we were doing. Patton was watching over us in the kitchen fondly, smiling at every idea and laughing at every joke, even if they weren't particularly good. Patton adjusts himself, accidentally knocking a spoon onto the floor, causing Quil and Davi to look in his direction.

"Thomas, your ghosts are hungry," Davi jokes.

My sides come around and check on me often. It's not surprising at this point and there is nothing I can really do about it anyway. However, they can be clumsy at times as well, accidentally knocking things over and bumping into furniture or walls. No problem, they usually pick whatever they knocked over up and go on their way. The problem is when people are over and they do it. At first, it freaked out my friends and made me self-conscious about it. But over time it became a light-hearted joke, so now whenever something gets knocked over or there's an 'unexplainable thump,' they say it's 'my ghosts' messing around.

"Well, they'll have to stay hungry," I smile, "I have no idea how to feed them."

"That rude, Thomas," Quil joins in, "You should always feed your guests."

I glance at Patton for a split second, "More like unruly roommates. They're lucky, they don't even pay rent."

"Technically we do, but-" Patton goes on to say before being cut off by Quil.

"Damn, must be a hard afterlife. Knock over a random guy's stuff and he doesn't even make you food."

"Would you?”

"... Depends."

Davi asks, "Hey, Thomas? Random question, but were you scared when you first moved into this house?"

I glance at Patton for help, but he just shrugs wildly at me. "Umm... No, not really. I mean, I guess it was scary at first, but after a while, you just tune out the noise."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Do you think it's actually a ghost or a demon or what?"

Oh boy, if only you knew. "Well... No, I don't think it's a ghost or a demon. I'm sure there's a solid, logical reason that all of this is happening but we just aren't seeing it. But the way I think of it is... If it was going to hurt me or wanted to hurt me, it would've done so by now, you know?"

Davi nods, "Yeah, I get it." I play off a breath of relief as just a sigh. I was making stuff up. I know for a fact it isn't a ghost, it's me. And it's not an it! It's a he! Sometimes a 'they,' but in, like, a plural way.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Quil smiles excitedly. "Let's do a ghost-hunting video!"

I feel my heart drop to my stomach as I realize what that implies. "... A ghost-hunting video?"

"Yeah! I have some equipment I could bring over, try some stuff I saw on TikTok a while ago, it could be fun! I mean, we most likely won't catch anything, but it could still make a cool video if we crack jokes and just have fun with it, you know?"

I nod along, feeling like roots and vines wrapped around my chest and squeezed tightly. "Yeah, totally!"

"Oh my god, I love watching those ghost-hunting videos!" Davi excitedly grabs Quil's arm, "Have you seen the ones that Ryan and Shane do?"

"Are you talking about their newer ones or their older ones?"

Davi and Quil continue talking about Ghostfiles and Buzzfeed unsolved while I give Patton a concerned glance. He holds onto his cardigan nervously, refusing to make eye contact with me. Finally, he sinks down guiltily. I feel bad for Patton. He didn't mean to, it was an accident. But now I may have to face a reality I don't want to face, that being 'confronting the idea that my sides are more than my sides.'

"So when do you wanna do it?" Quil turns to me and asks, catching me off guard.

Oh god, how do I answer this? Is there a good answer to this? "Umm, I don't know-"

"The soonest I'm free is a week from now," Davi chimes in, "Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, I should be free then," Quil turns towards me, "Thomas?"

"... Yeah, that works great!" I force a smile, trying my hardest to not let them suspect anything.

"Sweet! Hey, I gotta go, but I'll text you guys about it. It will be fun!"

"Great!" Davi grabs his bag, "I'd stay longer, but Quil's my ride. I'll see you soon, alright?"

"Yeah, of course!" I walk Quil and Davi out the door, waving them off. I take deep breaths as I close the door as sit back down on my couch in defeat. After a couple of minutes of agonizing silence, Virgil pops up by the stairs. Great.

I sigh, forcing a smile, "Hey, Virgil."

"Cut it," Virgil ordered, not buying my happy exterior. I immediately drop my smile after I hear him speak. "You were hanging out with Quil and Davi and now you're anxious... Why?"

Without another word, I summon Patton. As soon as he appeared, he began rambling. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! My hand just brushed against it and it fell and I didn't know it was there! I shouldn't have even been here, I should've ducked out when I could, I-"

"Patton!" Virgil shouts over him. Patton stops, waiting for Virgil to speak. "... Tell me what happened."

Patton takes a shakey inhale before speaking, "So, I... I knocked a spoon on the floor... in front of Quil and Davi-"

"Is that it?"

"No, that's... That's not the bad part. The bad part is... Now Davi and Quil want to ghost hunt here because of me."

"What?!" Virgil shouts, along with Roman and Logan who just arrived. While Roman and Virgil sounded genuinely concerned and panicked, Logan just sounded confused.

"I'm sorry!" Patton covered his face, part in embarrassment.

"Hold on," Logan interrupted, "Why are we panicking? Why is Quil and Davi 'ghost hunting' a bad thing?"

"Because what if they detect us?" Virgil speaks up.

Logan sighs, "They won't. We aren't ghosts, we are a part of Thomas. Also, ghosts aren't real."

Roman buts in, "Yes, I get that, but... Don't you at least find it a little strange that we can touch and throw things even though we are nothing more than Thomas's thoughts and feelings?"

Virgil leans in closer, "Interact with our surroundings... Like ghosts?"

Logan holds the bridge of his nose, "Gosh, both of you are being ridiculous. Yes, it is a little... Odd that we can touch things that exist. But for us to be ghosts, we'd have to be real or human, in some sense. And as far as I'm concerned, we don't even exist outside of Thomas."

At this time, Remus and Janus have both appeared in the kitchen, listening in on our conversations. Virgil pipes up once more, "You say that, but obviously, we have to exist somewhat. We can literally interact with our environment! Meaning we are as real as the things we knock over. Also meaning, we could be ghosts."

"... Virgil, we would have to have died to be ghosts, meaning we existed before Thomas. And that just doesn't seem likely, considering we are Thomas."

"But how do we know that?!"

"Because we are Thomas! Literally! If it looks like Thomas and sounds like Thomas, it's probably Thomas."

"No, I mean how do we know that we didn't exist before Thomas?!"

"We didn't exist before Thomas, there's... There's no way we could've... Ghosts are dead, Virgil. For us to have died, we would have to have lived. And the only one here that has ever lived is Thomas."

"Maybe we did live and we don't remember it! Isn't that the cliche? That the ghost has to remember how they died to pass on? If that's the case, then it makes sense why we don't remember dying or living."

"God, Virgil, you are infuriating right now." Logan turns towards everyone else in a slow turn, looking for support, "I'm not the crazy one here, right? I'm being reasonable? Patton, Janus, anyone?!"

Janus tilts their head slightly, lost in thought, before speaking. "You know... I would try and lie about this, but I... I actually don't know the answer."

"What?" Logan says exasperatedly.

"I mean... I could give an answer, but I wouldn't be lying... I'd just be wrong, maybe."

Logan whips around towards Virgil again, "Okay, then how do you explain all of us looking like Thomas if we are separated beings from Thomas?"

"I don't know, maybe that's the only way Thomas can see us."

"So... What, you think Thomas is a medium? And what about what we represent? We know what we represent, that has to have some meaning for you, right?"

"Guys, let's calm down and take a breath, alright?" Patton tries to de-escalate, moving his hands as he speaks. "I mean, will know the answer when it happens, right?"

"Yes, but-" Logan interrupts himself. He takes a deep breath, before facing Virgil once more, "... But I want to try and ease everyone's mind before then."

Virgil sighs, "I know, I just... I'm scared to be... 'Found out', you know? I mean, as much as we pretend that all of this is normal, we all know it isn't. We know Joan or Kenny or Davi and Quil don't have their own 'sides' that they talk to daily. And I don't know how much longer we can lie to them about this."

"Virgil-"

"And what if they react badly? What if they think all of this is weird or strange, too weird for them to stick around? Or what if they think Thomas is haunted by ghosts and they freak out and run off? And what if they tell Thomas's other friends and they do the same? What then?"

The entire room has gone silent. This wasn't a new train of thought for me, being scared that my friends were going to leave, but hearing it out loud in this context made my stomach flip. Finding out about the sides really would freak them out too much, wouldn't it?

Logan places his hands on Virgil's shoulders softly, with a neutral but sympathetic look. "Everything will be fine. I promise... They may think it's weird, but it should take more than this to drive them away. "

"... And if it does drive them away?"

"Then they weren't real friends anyway. Plus," Logan removes his hands and dusts himself off, "I don't see why they should be scared. We're the ones who live with it."

"Yeah!" Roman cheers, "If they don't like it, they can suck it! We deal with us every day, and that just makes us stronger than them."

"And it's not like they have anything to fear," Patton adds on, sitting on the arm of the couch, "We aren't violent or evil or anything."

"Speak for yourself," Remus cracks his neck, the pops sending shivers down my spine.

Patton winces, "Well... Well, we've never hurt anyone."

"On purpose."

"Or severely."

"Or physically," Logan explains, "We can't touch them. We can touch things, Like spoons or counters, but not people. So even if Remus wanted to put his hands on them, he couldn't."

"If I could physically hurt people, I would've done so already. That's why you gotta... put them to sleep for me, Sanders-man."

I shoot Remus a look, "Okay, that first sentence did freak me out a bit, but... Sanders-man?"

"Like sandman. Not my best work, I admit. I'll workshop it."

Janus clears his throat to get everyone's attention, "So we're lying about this, right? If they suspect anything just deny?"

Virgil takes a harsh breath in, taking a seat on the stairs, "... As much as I hate you and that idea... It's the only one that can keep Thomas safe."

"Aw, Virgil doesn't want to admit I'm useful~"

Logan takes control of the conversation once more. "Reminder: this is all dependant on if their ghost equipment even detects us. And there's a very good chance it doesn't.

Maybe... Maybe attempting to rationalize with fear was the wrong move. Because, and don't take this the wrong way Virgil, but fear can be... A bit irrational. Why don't we try and find different ways to cope until then? Any ideas?"

To be continued…

#thomas sanders #sander sides #sanders sides #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #Thomas Sanders storytime

[fangirlwriting-stories]

I Choose You

Summary: Virgil supports Roman after the wedding, and is not prepared for Roman to support him too.

…

It wasn’t that Virgil hated Janus and Remus, was the thing.

Well, okay, obviously he wasn’t the biggest fan of them.  Janus was a prick and a liar and Virgil hated that he could never trust a word he said.  Remus was an asshole who enjoyed freaking Virgil out on purpose and never considered how Virgil might not like being jump scared all the time.  They were both a nightmare to live with, because Remus never cleaned up and Janus was always too busy taking a self care day to clean up, so it always fell to Virgil, since a messy environment stressed him out.  Neither of them wanted to hear him out when he tried to argue that the core sides had decent points to make.  Neither of them listened to him when he tried to say that he didn’t want to keep going over there alone, and that dealing with constant hatred from people, even if they weren’t technically his friends, was hard.  Neither of them believed him when Virgil tired to tell them just because Thomas accepted him now didn’t mean he wanted to leave—

Anyway, he had a lot of reasons to be pissed at them.

But that wasn’t even the main problem.  The main problem was that Virgil wasn’t stupid.  Obviously this bullshit with Janus wasn’t going to last forever.  Patton and him were going to talk for a while and then they were going to remember why they hated each other and why the two sides of the mindscape had split up in the first place.  And if Virgil attempted to use this time to do something stupid like fix things with Janus and Remus, when the inevitable arguments and fallout happened, he was just going to be pulled back and forth like the rope in a game of tug-of-war, and Virgil didn’t want to fucking do that again.

No, he was here with the core sides now.  This was the choice he’d made, the choice they’d all forced him to make, he wasn’t going back now.  Besides, he was still pissed at Janus and Remus anyway.

So, instead of waiting around for Patton and Janus’ tentative bullshit to inevitably fall apart, Virgil decided to spent time with someone who A, already shared his completely correct worldview, and B… really needed some support right now.

Roman hadn’t been doing great since the wedding.  Virgil had sort of known that was inevitable.  It was part of the reason he was so proud of him for making the decision he had.  Obviously Janus was spouting a bunch of bullshit when he said going to the wedding was the wrong choice.  But even if he was right, Virgil would still have been proud of Roman.  That had to be so hard for him, and he deserved to be able to feel proud of his decision, instead of having it spat on by a slimy two-faced snake who didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.

But either way, because things had been hard on Roman for a while, Virgil was making it his personal mission to give him some support and buildup.  He clearly needed it, and he deserved it, and Virgil was going to give this “good friend” thing a shot.  Thomas knows he owed it to Roman, with all the ways he’d treated him in the past.

The two of them had started hanging out more for a while now, really since Thomas had first met Nico.  They watched Disney together (though Virgil still could not get behind Roman’s reasons for loving it), and they listened to music that Roman belted out the lyrics too, and, on days Virgil was feeling particularly brave, they sang duets.

They didn’t tend to bring up the Patton-and-Janus situation, but it had come up before.  Sometimes Roman just wanted to talk about it, sometimes they both wanted to bitch about Janus, sometimes (very occasionally) Roman would ask if Virgil could give him some reassurance.  Virgil didn’t tend to bring it up, though.  He was supposed to be here to support Roman, and besides, his feelings on the matter were very much worked out.

At least, that’s what he’d thought.

Roman was still the one who brought it up first.  They were sitting together on Roman’s bed, watching Mulan on the giant TV Roman had at the end of the bed specifically for this purpose.  Virgil was pretty tired, as he hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, and he was trying to come up with a way to casually ask Roman if he could lean against him and take a nap without Roman thinking that he didn’t want to be here or that he suddenly didn’t like Mulan anymore.  Before he could actually figure the words out, however, Roman turned to face him.

“Virgil,” he said.  “Do you ever think that maybe Janus actually does want to help Thomas in his own way?”

Virgil tensed and immediately sat up.  “What?  Fuck no.  What are you talking about?”

“I just… I’m thinking about it,” Roman said hesitantly.  “I mean, he’s still a slimy serpentine scammer and I’m still mad at him, obviously.  I want an apology too.  But… I don’t know if I want to write his entire opinion off, just because I don’t like him.  I… that hasn’t tended to go well for me in the past.”

He looked away from Virgil, who’s throat felt like it was closing up all of a sudden.

“No,” he said.  “That’s different.  That was different.  I’m not like Janus, it’s different.”

Roman turned back to him in surprise.  “I wasn’t saying you were like him, Virgil,” he said.  “I was comparing my own approaches to you both, if anything.  I just… if everyone’s going to treat me like I’m doing something wrong whether I treat the others poorly or not… it kind of feels better to not scream at them and shut them down automatically?  I don’t love it when that happens to me.  I can’t imagine you loved it happening to you.”

Virgil shook his head.  “But— but Janus is a prick,” he said weakly.  “He doesn’t deserve a second chance, Roman.”

Roman bit his lip and turned to look at Virgil.  “Maybe… maybe he does, though?  I’m not—” he held up his hands.  “I’m not trying to make your decision for you.  You still get to be pissed at him for whatever reasons you want.  Like I said, I’m still pissed at him too.  I just…” Roman sighed, and leaned his head on his hand.  “I don’t want this to last forever,” he muttered.

Virgil couldn’t breathe.  He shook his head.  “What are you talking about,” he said weakly.  “What are you talking about, it will last forever.  We can’t just fix things.  We’re not going to be able to make things better.”

Roman turned to look at Virgil in surprise.  “Well geez, that’s a bit of a depressing outlook, isn’t it, Count Woe-laf?”

“It’s not depressing, it’s just a fact,” Virgil snapped.  “Do you know how long all of us have been split up?  There’s no fixing things at this point.  There’s too much bad blood.”

Roman narrowed his eyes in what looked like concern.  “Virgil,” he said quietly.  “We fixed things with you.”

Virgil glared away, wrapping his arms around himself.  “That’s different,” he whispered.

Roman was quiet for a minute.  “Do you not want to fix things with Janus and Remus?” he asked finally.

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” Virgil said firmly.

Roman put a hand on his arm.  “Yes, Virgil,” he said.  “It does.”

Virgil grit his teeth and turned around to glare at Roman.  “No, Roman,” he snapped.  “It never has.  It didn’t matter when I got sent off with the others when we all first split up.  It didn’t matter when I started getting closer with you guys again and Janus and Remus didn’t like that.  It didn’t matter what I said I wanted or what they said they wanted, everyone made me choose anyway.  Someone’s always going to make me choose, and I would rather not get swept up in the stupid hope that it’s somehow going to work this time, okay?  I already picked you guys.  I’m not going to sit around and wait for Janus and Patton to start hating each other again.  And I’m certainly not going to try and make it work in the meantime.  I would recommend you not try either.  It’s just going to make it hurt more later.”

Roman stared at him for a minute, and eventually Virgil just glared away.

“Virgil,” Roman said eventually, and Virgil felt a gentle hand on his shoulder that he jerked away from.

“Virgil,” Roman said again anyway.  “Did— did we all make you feel like you had to choose between us?”

Virgil laughed and looked up at the ceiling.  “No one made me feel like anything,” he said weakly.  “Janus said ‘It’s them or us, and if you choose them you better not show your face around here again.’”

“Virgil,” Roman said, and suddenly Virgil was swept up into Roman’s arms.  Virgil didn’t have the strength to pull away when it was the last thing he wanted, so instead he just buried his head in Roman’s chest.

“Did you want to stay with them?” Roman murmured.

“I mean,” Virgil said weakly.  “Back then, maybe.  But they didn’t believe me.  And now, I— Thomas would never trust me again.  None of you would ever trust me again.”

“I would,” Roman said, tightening his arms.

Virgil scoffed.

“Hey,” Roman said, pushing him back to arms length even as he kept a very firm grip on Virgil’s arms.  “Listen to me, okay?”

His gaze was so intense and obviously serious that Virgil couldn’t do anything but nod.

“I know I messed up in how I treated you before,” Roman said.  He wiped away a tear that Virgil hadn’t even realized was there.  “I wouldn’t do it again.  If you chose to go back and stay with them, that wouldn’t change anything about how I feel about you.”

Virgil shook his head.  “Roman, that’s not—”

“Hey.  They didn’t believe you, and that sucked, right?”  He squeezed Virgil’s shoulders.  “You can believe me.”

Virgil took a shaky breath and wiped at his eyes.  “It doesn’t even matter,” he said.  “Nothing’s ever going to get better.”

“I’m not so sure that’s true,” Roman said quietly.  “You don’t think they miss you?”

“They hate me.”

Roman didn’t say anything to that, but Virgil could see the disbelief on his face.

“Okay,” he said anyway.  “But, say they didn’t.  Say they wanted to fix things.  Would you want to too?”

Virgil didn’t say anything, which was apparently enough of an answer.

“Then please,” Roman said, leaning forward to look Virgil in the eyes.  “Don’t stop yourself from trying for our sake.”

Virgil shook his head.  “I don’t—”

Roman cut Virgil off by pulling him into his chest again.  “I choose you, okay?” he murmured.  “Whether you’re with them or us.”

Virgil took a shaky breath, and rested his head against Roman’s chest.  “Okay,” he whispered.

Roman breathed a sigh of what sounded like relief and just sat there and held Virgil for a while, and Virgil let him.

He wasn’t sure if he fully believed Roman or not.  But Roman was right that it really did suck to have your own care for someone denied to your face.  So, for the sake of that, Virgil decided he’d try.  It still probably wouldn’t fix anything.

But it was a nice thought.

#sanders sides #virgil sanders #roman sanders #platonic prinxiety #platonic anxceit #platonic dukexiety #my fic

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Connection: Virgil

Read on Ao3 Part 1 Janus

Warnings: panic attack

Pairings: prinxiety

Word Count: 2471

Virgil glances up as the door to the coffee shop dings and grins when he sees the cute boy again.

Virgil glances up as the door to the coffee shop dings and grins when he sees the cute boy again. He's gotten pretty good at predicting when certain students are going to come in and Princey's about as firm a schedule as it gets. He leans against the counter and props his hand on his chin, waiting for Roman to look up and see him.

"Hey there, Princey."

"What? Oh. Uh, hey."

Virgil frowns. "You okay?"

"Oh, aren't we all."

That…wasn't an answer. Roman's still patting his pockets like he's lost something. After a few moments, he lets out a noise of triumph as he produces a piece of paper and smooths it over his knee. He reads it once or twice, mouthing a few of the words, before he sighs and folds it up again, still holding it in his hand. Only then does he seem to realize he has, in fact, made it to where he was trying to go and his face flips through several expressions before landing on one that any of Virgil's coworkers would be proud to have.

"Virgil! Hello, yes, hi. Sorry, I'm a bit out of it right now."

"No problem, I've been there." He moves to the register. "You want your massive pile of sugar?"

"Ah, no."

Now this is a problem. Never once in all the months that he's been coming here has Roman ever deviated from his normal order. Thankfully—or rather, thanks to having to work a customer service job—Virgil recovers in a split second and just nods. "Sure, bud. What do you want instead?"

"What's the cheapest thing on the menu?"

"…technically we have to give out free cups of water, so that's the cheapest thing, but I think some of the roasts are only, like fifty cents—"

"I'll have a cup of water, thanks."

Problem. Problem central. Houston, we are having so many problems right now.

"Hey, Princey?"

"Mm?"

"Are you—wellness check. Not a bit, not customer service, are you okay?"

For a moment, he thinks Roman's just going to brush it off. Say that he's fine or another equal non-answer and Virgil will just have to sneak a cookie into his bag again to make sure he's doing alright, but then the whole man just deflates. It's almost impressive, the way he loses about two inches of height and just manages to look small—though the man's an actor, so it makes sense that he knows how to change his appearance with just body language—but more importantly, this is Roman beginning to admit he's not okay.

Oh, fuck, Roman's not okay.

"Hey, hey," Virgil's saying softly before he even realizes it, reaching across the counter, "stay with me, bud, it's gonna be alright. I'm right here, there's no one else here—" quick check to make sure that's really true— "it's just us. You're safe here."

The piece of paper crinkles ominously in Roman's hand. Slowly, telegraphing his movements so Roman can stop him, Virgil reaches up and carefully takes his hand in his. Roman jerks, glaring hard at Virgil's expression for a moment, before he softens and lets himself be led to lean against the counter.

"I'm gonna get you that cup of water," Virgil says, still speaking softly, "and then you and I are gonna go sit in the back, yeah?"

"You're working," Roman mumbles.

"You see anyone else here?"

"…no."

"Then it's okay. Come on, Princey, you can do it. I believe in you."

It makes a little hysterical snort come out of Roman but he looks steady enough to let go while Virgil shoves a cup under a sink—lid, straw on instinct—and carries it back over. He nudges it gently into Roman's free hand and scoots around the counter, offering a shoulder to lean on while they walk to the back. He nudges the door open with his foot and carefully deposits the Roman-pile onto a beanbag chair.

"Hey," he murmurs once they're sitting, still talking a bit like Roman's a feral cat about to swipe at him, "hey, Princey. Drink some of that water, yeah?"

Roman sticks the straw in his mouth and takes a few gulps. The water does the trick; he gives himself a bit of a shake and sets it down, leaning back against the wall and covering his face with his hands. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, we've all been there." He leans back too, shoulder to shoulder. "You wanna talk about it?"

"It's dumb."

"Princey, a lot of things in this world are dumb. Not selling both shoes in a pair for the same price, upcharging people for an extra straw—"

Roman snorts again and Virgil grins.

"—but whatever's making you upset probably isn't that. Unless you tell me you're upset 'cause the school voted not to host that alt-right speaker, then we're gonna have questions."

"Listen here, you absolute jackwagon—"

Virgil laughs and after a moment, Roman joins in. And then, well, Virgil's gotta take a moment just to stare at him because goddamnit, Roman Prince is adorable when he laughs and Virgil is here to appreciate it. He's got this smile that—okay, no, Virgil knows it's cliche to wax on about someone's smile but Roman's is perfect. He's got that slightly crooked one where one side of his mouth curls up a little higher than the other and then his eyes get all wrinkly at the corners and his nose scrunches up right in the middle…he's so gosh darn cute.

Then he stops laughing and starts to look like a sad puppy again and Virgil shifts closer, pressing their sides together.

"I'm not going anywhere, Princey," he says quietly, "you can tell me if you want."

Roman takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "They're changing how they're doing financial aid scholarships."

"Oh yeah?"

"Mhm." His fingers toy with the paper. "They—they want higher grades now and they've capped how much they're going to give out."

Virgil sits up a little more. There's a wrinkle in between Roman's brows now.

"I—so I just came from a meeting with my academic advisor, right, and I was like—I told her that I really need this scholarship money, like I don't think I can be here without it and she said—she said she'd take it up with the Dean and I could come and present my case in person, but I just—"

He lets out a shuddering breath, leaning his head back against the wall again.

"I don't know if I can do this."

Virgil's quiet for another moment, just in case Roman isn't done. When he doesn't say anything else, he gently taps Roman's arm. He gets the hit and starts to drink more of the water.

"I can't imagine how scary that must be," he starts off, "and I'm so sorry you're going through this right now. That's really shitty of them to do to you and I really wish it weren't happening."

"You and me both."

"But when it comes to you not being able to do it? Princey, look at me." Roman turns and he's got this sad little pouty face and Virgil can feel himself getting softer by the second. "You are one of the strongest people I know, okay? You will get through this, 'cause I know you and I know you'll kick the ass of any problem that thinks it can fuck with you."

"What? How am I one of the strongest people you know?"

"Raising your brother like you are? Being in the amount of extracurriculars you are? Roman, you work a part-time job as an independent contractor in college. Do you know how many people wish that would be their first job after college? I know the website you write for fucking loves you, the coach of the school's team fucking loves you, and your professors think you're hot shit."

"No, they don't."

"Yeah, they do. Bud, from what it sounds like, you're a hop, skip, and a jump away from TA-ing about half of your literature classes and I know your theatre professor wants to steal you away and make you a full-time theatre major. And your academic advisor just went to the Dean to go to bat for you."

"My math professor doesn't like me."

"From what it sounds like, he doesn't like anybody."

"There's at least one person he likes."

"You're not gonna get everyone, Princey, you know that. I mean, hey, most of the people that come in here think I'm pretty great—"

"That's 'cause you are."

Don't fucking say shit like that, Princey, you'll make me blush— "but then there's that tiny percentage that think I'm poisoning their drinks with my queerness, you feel?"

In hindsight, he could've timed that better so as not to say it when Roman's taking another sip of his water. He pats his back apologetically as Roman coughs, shooting him a mock look of betrayal that's undercut by the grin he can see taking shape under there.

"The point I was trying to make," he says once Roman's got control of his lungs back, "is that you're not alone in this. I'm sure you're not the only student who's gonna be fucked over by this and you've got friends. I know for sure your professors would be willing to fight for you and you've got friends. Right? You got me."

"I know I do."

Fuck. Shit. Abort mission. He's too cute. He's too cute and too earnest and he's looking at me like that. Shit. Fuck. Why is he so cute?

"Thank you, Virgil," Roman says softly, apparently oblivious to the havoc he's wreaking on Virgil's insides, "that means a lot. You're right, I know it's probably gonna be okay, I just…you know, it can be overwhelming."

You're telling me. "Yeah, I get that. It's okay to be overwhelmed, Princey, just take a sec before you start bouncing off walls."

Roman chuckles. "Sure."

"Can I ask…?"

"Yeah?"

Virgil nods to the piece of paper. "What's that?"

"Oh. The, uh, they're the new requirements and the scholarship caps." He unfolds it. "See? They're not gonna give out these ones anymore and you need to have these grades just to make it by. The—well. I won't go on and on. I've taken you away from the front for too long."

Virgil hits his arm affectionately. "You're a delight, is what you are, so you explain all you want."

"But the others—"

Stop being so adorably considerate or I'll have to kiss you about it. "Deal: we go back out to the front, you let me make you your ungodly amount of sugar while you explain this to me, and then you drink it and chill for five minutes before you go dash off again."

"Are you gonna refund it again?"

"No." Virgil smirks as he gets up. "I'm not even gonna charge you for it."

"Virgil, you could get in trouble for—"

"For buying a cute boy a drink? Not on my boss's life." He winks and wiggles his fingers as Roman splutters. "C'mon, Princey, what were you saying about the scholarships?"

Roman narrows his eyes at him but takes his hand, letting Virgil pull him up as they leave the back room. Virgil pats the counter right next to where the drinks station is, waiting for Roman to come over and stand before getting back to work.

"So the new grade requirements actually aren't that different from what you need to be on the team or in the theatre department, so it shouldn't be that much harder to keep them up, but that does mean that there's no longer that safety net, you know? 'Cause if my grades start slipping I could drop the team or the acting and then just focus on school, but now it's kind of an all-or-nothing situation and—I dunno. It makes it more stressful."

"Well, yeah, that makes sense. Mocha syrup?"

"Uh, sure."

"Is it at all a relief that you just have to keep your grades where they are right now? You don't suddenly have to aim for a whole grade higher?"

"A bit? I don't know, it's—it's really annoying that they've decided to do this this year, 'cause now I'm kinda stuck. Not that I could really afford to apply to a different school and move and everything anyway, but…still. Sucks."

"I bet. How much ice?"

"That's good. The good thing is that when I talked it over with my advisor, I asked if we could push for having this apply to incoming students instead of the ones that are already here and she said that might work, so…that's what I'm hoping for."

"Reasonable. And yeah, I know the Board's made individual exceptions in the past, if you make your case you could be one of them."

"But then that's not fair to everyone else who's gonna get screwed over by this."

"They can go in front of the Board too, I'm sure. And it might be the case of if the Board sees how many students they're actually going to be affecting—and good students at that, maybe they'll think twice about being—what did you call it? 'Jackwagons?'"

Roman snorts. "Yeah. Jackwagons."

"Maybe they'll think twice about being absolute motherfuckers."

He grins when Roman doubles over laughing, putting the lid on and sliding his drink over with a flourish. Then he has to just take a moment to bask in the glory that is Roman laughing, his chin on his hands as he feels himself smiling too.

"Thank you, Virgil," Roman manages when he gets himself together, "I really, really appreciate this. I can pay you back—"

"No, you cannot. Ah—" he holds up his finger when Roman goes to protest—"none of that. You don't owe me anything. You're my friend, I'm happy to do stuff for you."

"You sure?"

"Well, if you really wanna pay me back, you can let me take you out to dinner."

A little blush forms on the top of Roman's cheeks—criminally adorable, this man—and he shakes his head. "You know, you're not the only person who's asked me that recently."

"Of course I'm not, you're too cute for that."

"Virgil!"

"Answer me this, though." He leans over the counter. "Any of these people know your favorite drink by heart?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Just a little something to keep in mind."

"You're the worst."

"Mhm. You gonna do something about it?"

"Is that a thinly-veiled 'are you saying yes?'"

"Maybe."

Roman sighs. "Could we do a lunch instead? Remus needs to be home and studying for his test and I don't wanna leave him all by himself if he needs support."

"Yeah, of course. We can even do that sandwich shop around the corner that does the free half-sandwich if you buy two."

"Deal."

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@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 @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance @whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti @ultrageekygirl  

#dragonbabbles #roman sanders #sanders sides #virgil sanders #prinxiety #fic

[i-am-bitterly-jittery]

On Death's Doorstep (pt 35/?)

[<First],,,,[<Prev],[Next>] [ODD Masterlist]

Word count: 1231

Rating: Teen

Pairings: Anxceit, platonic Loceit

Warnings: unhealthy family dynamics

~~~START~~~

Logan was feeling… conflicted.  

On the one hand, he had done it. Not only had he conquered death, but he had his daughter back in his life, and she knew who he was.  

On the other hand, Remy hated him.  

And of course, on some level he understood where she was coming from, he hadn’t been around to raise her, he was a supervillain, he had inadvertently made her incapable of escaping building collapse, and he had technically experimented on her without her consent, but none of that changed that he was her father. He loved her, everything he did — as an inventor, as a supervillain, as a scientist — had been for her, whether he’d known it at the time or not.  

Still, she hated him. She wanted to stay with Virgil rather than with him — which, if Logan thought about it with his rational mind, made sense; Virgil was a superhero and a public figure; children in the city had been encouraged to go to him if they needed help for years.   

The rational part of Logan’s mind, however, was not currently in charge, a fact that was further exacerbated by the knowledge that his mother, through little fault of her own, was incapable of giving him the privacy he needed to work through his thoughts and feelings.  

“You just need to give her time, dear,” Barbra told him over breakfast, grating at his already frayed nerves by turning his thoughts into their topic of conversation. For several days now, Logan had been feeling like a teenager again, his thoughts open for public discussion — he was well versed in sidestepping his mother’s abilities, yes, but one could hardly spend their entire day focusing on Windows 95 screensavers.  

“She likes Janus more than me,” Logan pointed out petulantly. Normally, he would not admit his petty feelings out loud, but saying them rather than thinking them at least gave him the illusion of sharing information of his own accord. “They are a supervillain just the same as I am. The twins I could understand as they have no plans or ambitions past acquiring pretty things and having a good time, but Janus is functionally no different than me!” 

“They didn’t come with confusing labels for Remy to wrap her head around,” Barbra said. “They’re a supervillain and a random stranger; you’re a supervillain, a random stranger, and her estranged father that she doesn’t remember. She needs time.” 

Logan frowned. His mother had had dinner with the rest of the household the previous night, which was nice insofar as it gave Logan a small reprise to think, but terrible because he could now add her to the list of people Remy liked better than him.  

Barbra’s face softened before twisting up in surprise. “Oh!” 

Before Logan could ask her what she had seen — and he knew that she had seen something — there was a frantic knocking at the door. Knowing that whoever was waiting on the other side was the source of his mother’s surprise — distress? — Logan went to answer it without questioning his mother further.  

On the other side, he found Janus, practically doubled over from exertion.  

“Janus–” 

“Virgil’s gone,” they panted, thrusting a paper into Logan’s chest.  

Logan would question them further, but his mother was there, leading Janus into a chair and handing them a glass of water before he could even begin to form a follow up question. Virgil? Gone? With his cuffs removed he certainly had the means to leave, but why would he? 

Belatedly, Logan remembered the paper Janus had given him, he unfolded it to find a hand-written note. Whoever had written it had remarkably neat handwriting, with only faint lines where the writer had foregone picking their pen up all the way between letters betraying the writer’s anxiety.  

Dear Janus, 

I’m sorry about leaving this way, but I hope you can understand that I had to… 

The letter went on to describe how Virgil’s fathers had been kidnapped by a supervillain, how Virgil had been almost certain that this was a trap that had been laid for him, and how he hoped Janus would look after Patton until he returned. The only thing that suggested that Virgil did not think he would come back was the section where he implored Janus to give Patton the letter Virgil had written for him when they felt he was old enough.  

Logan stared at the letter for a moment longer.  

“You have already checked Roman’s apartment?” He finally asked, certain he already knew the answer. There was a feeling building up in Logan’s chest that he could not identify, but he did not enjoy it.  

“Dread,” Barbra said, softly so as to not interrupt Janus. 

“I did, Patton was thankfully still asleep, but Remy was awake. Virgil left her a letter too, explaining that he’d gone.” 

“Right…” The gears in Logan’s brain were turning, he didn’t have quite the full picture yet, but regrouping in Roman’s apartment seemed like the best course of action; have everyone all together both to plan their next steps and to look after Patton when he inevitably learned that he was — at least temporarily — down now two fathers. “Mother, if you could–” 

“Already on it, dear,” Barbra assured him, slipping out of the apartment to go wake the twins.  

“Janus,” Logan started once she was gone. “I believe it would be best if we moved this downstairs.” 

“He didn’t even try to ask for help,” Janus said, they had finished catching their breath from the climb up to Logan’s apartment, but Logan now realized that they were having a greater emotional response than he had anticipated. “Why didn’t he ask for help? I would have dropped everything to help him.” 

“I–” Logan started before deciding that honesty would be a better tactic. “The first thing that you need to remember about most superheroes is that they are, at their core, self-sacrificing idiots — that is how they became superheroes — and the second thing you need to remember, this time about Virgil specifically, is that a dangerous combination of too strong a hero-complex, and too little self-worth, have made him incredibly easy to manipulate, even if he knows that it is happening.” 

“Why is he like this?” Janus groaned, barely paying attention to Logan at all.  

“I do not know, but either way, I believe it would be best that we do not leave Remy on her own when Patton wakes up.” 

“Shit, Patton!” Janus lurched to their feet. “I don’t know how to be a parent!” 

“We can cross that bridge if we come to it,” Logan assured them, gently coaxing them towards the door. “But if it does come to that, you are hardly alone, and I assure you, Patton is quite fond of you.” 

“Logan,” Janus gasped, turning their full attention on Logan for the first time since handing him Virgil’s letter. Logan had never seen his friend quite so uncertain in their eight years of friendship.  

“I know, Janus,” he said, placing a steadying hand on Janus’s shoulder. “But we will fix this. We will get Virgil back.” 

Virgil was a part of their family now. Janus had certainly started the process by insisting that they keep him, but Logan had finished it by asking for Virgil’s help and figuratively laying himself bare before the hero. They would get him back.  

~~~END~~~

I've had this done for like a week now, but I thought the chapter was going to keep going so I didn't post it. But as it turns out the next part makes more sense as Janus POV and I think it was gonna get kinda long, so it's two separate chapters now

ODD taglist

@royalty-of-all-things-snuggly @pixelated-pineapple @arsonic-knight @misunderstood-shadowling @lost-in-thought-20 @remy-the-lemon-berry @jinxcrafter @apinkline2715 @gothfoxx @donutsarepartybagels @xoaningout @meganmoneky14

#sanders sides #ts sanders sides #logan sanders #janus sanders #on death’s doorstep #superhero au #thursday writes #my writing #sanders sides fanfiction

[thecrowslullaby]

My @sanderssidesgiftxchange gift for @emoprincey. Unfortunately I had some technical dificulties on my part (unplanned flu that knocked me out for two weeks) so I only have a short drabble for you. I do have a longer - soulmate anxceit one, that I do plan to finish, but I did not want to leave you without a gift :D! Hopefully you will like the replacement gift!

Fuck fuck fuck.

This was supposed to be an easy mission. He wasn't supposed to be caught in a crossfire as he built the last of the amplifier. Janus scrambled to secure the last of his equipment as the fight outside raged on. Of course some D-grade villain would decide to wreak havoc outside his little base just as Janus' little team was ready for a takeover of their own.

He stumbled as the ground shook. The little antenna he was holding slipped from his grasp and he fumbled to catch it. Marginally avoiding shattering hours of work on the dirty wooden floor. He could feel his phone buzzing in his back pocket. Remus and Virgil no doubt wanting to inquire about his progress, but Janus didn’t have time, he needed to finish this and get out before-

A loud crack nearly shattered Janus eardrums. Fuck. Their fight was getting closer. He rushed back to the table. Securing all the screws for the last time. Turning the machine on and stepping back to admire his work.

He got about three seconds of pure glory out of staring at the Dark Sides Engineering masterpiece before a body got flung through one of the warehouse's cracked windows and landed right in the middle of three months worth of work. Destroying all of it on impact.

Perhaps he should have run. It’s not like he could salvage anything at this point, and scrap metal wasn’t worth risking his life for. But Janus was never one to listen to reason when fury boiled in his veins.

“Is destroying people’s property the hobby of all heroes or am I just particularly lucky?” He snapped at the man, regretting it immediately when the hero turned his gaze towards Janus.

Well, at least he assumed the hero did. The cracked Visor hid his eyes, while perfectly reflecting Janus’ own.

Shit

Of course out of all the heroes Janus had to have literally crushed his plans was Logic himself.

“What are you doing here?” The hero demanded and Janus considered running for it. Surely the hero had better things to do than chase him when there was a villain to fight outside.

A villain that Janus wasn’t sure was D-grade if Logic just got his ass handed to him.

No. Better to stay inside until the hero distracted them again.

“I could ask you the same question.” Janus raised his eyebrow, slipping into defense. “Weren’t you fighting some guy in a spandex a minute ago.” And far away from Janus' precious equipment. That the hero was still very much crushing with his ass. He wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse so he decided not to bring his villain costume with him. How likely would it be for a civilian to lurk around an abandoned warehouse? He certainly couldn’t pass as a teenager.

Maybe he could pretend to be some kind of construction worker. Or a freelance photographer. Nevermind he didn’t have a camera on hand.

Just act as if he was meant to be here. That leads to the fewest questions. And the hero has better things to do anyway.

“I’d offer you to stay, but I think you have a rendezvous with a villain in skin tight clothes. And frankly I don’t exactly feel like being caught in the crossfire.”

That seemed to finally snap the hero out of his stupor as he scrambled to his feet. And Janus prayed he wouldn’t pay too much mind as to what exactly he crushed. All he wanted now was for the hero to go back to stopping his competition and forget all about their little run-in.

But of course fate never wanted to abide by his wishes.

“Right. I need to get you to safety.” He reached out for Janus, but the blond took a step back and sent him a glare.

“I can leave on my own, thank you very much.”

“There isn’t time-”

“For you to argue. Good thing we agree on that.” Janus gave him a smug grin. “So how about you-”

The ground shook again and the hero stumbled forward, nearly knocking Janus over, but the blond raised his hands just in time, steading them both.

Janus expected the hero to use the opportunity to tug him away. Throw him over the shoulder like a sack of potatoes and save another ‘innocent civilian’. But the hero did none of these things. Instead he stayed perfectly still, his expression completely unreadable under the visor. He took a step back but the hero’s hand shot forward, grabbing his wrist.

“What?” Janus hissed, trying to yank his hand free, but the hold around his wrist only tightened. “Will you let go of me?”

That seemed to snap the hero back to reality. He moved his palm from Janus' wrist to his hand, tugging the shorter man behind himself.

“We need to evacuate.”

“I’m perfectly capable of doing that on my own.” Janus sneered as he fought to find his steps again. Curse tall people and their ridiculously long strides.

“Is that why you haven’t evacuated yet?”

“I was busy.”

“Busy with what?” The hero looked over his shoulder.

“And since when is that any of your business?”

“Since I protect this city.”

“Oh really? Are you employed by the government?” Logic glanced over his shoulders to no doubt shoot him a dirty look. Janus couldn’t keep himself from smirking. “I won’t tell anyone you bend the law if you don’t.”

“I don’t-” He began but promptly shut his mouth, deciding against it. Janus felt his smirk widen. He allowed the silence to stretch for a while longer, basking in his small victory before he spoke up again.

“Speaking of bending the law, I need you to let me go, I don’t exactly care for being kidnapped.”

“What?”

“Kidnapping, four eyes.” Janus drawled out. “Unfortunately for you, my mama warned me about stranger danger.”

“Stranger- You don’t know who I am?”

“Ah classic, kidnapper makes you believe you know them.

“I’m not- I’m not trying to kidnap you!”

“Could have fooled me.” Janus purred. “Why are you dragging me someplace without my consent then?”

The hero stopped abruptly, making Janus slam into his back.

“I’m trying to evacuate you from a danger zone.”

“Is that what you criminals call it these days?” Janus mused “I must say, it does have a professional ring to it. Do you-”

There was a cry of pain coming from the outside that sounded suspiciously like Remus’. No. No he wouldn’t. He was at his post unless- Janus felt all color drain from his face.

Unless he got worried when Janus didn’t answer his phone.

Shit

He twisted his hand out of the hero’s grip and ran towards the exit. His thoughts racing towards his friend. He managed to throw the door to the warehouse open and throw himself out into the light. The sun blinded him momentarily, making him stumble. He blinked rapidly, trying to get a sense of the surroundings.

There was a figure laying on the ground just a few feet from him and Janus threw himself towards it, Remus name already forming on his lips when he felt himself floating up.

He scrambled, trying to get his footing to no avail. He heard a cruel laugh above him and Janus snapped his head towards the sound. His blood ran cold. 

It was easy to make fun of all the other villains in their town. How clearly all of them relied on their superpowers rather than a thought out plan when they were held deep inside the prison.

But coming eye to eye with Tremorstrike had a terrifying effect. 

He watched as the villain's grin widened under his flimsy mask and Janus closed his eyes, preparing for the worst.

****

Janus held the belief that Logic was one of the smartest heroes Janus had the misfortune of meeting. And the opinion only strengthened itself after their last encounter. Despite the situation Janus may or may not have… complicated Logic managed to save both himself, Prince, who he wrongly assumed was Remus at first, and Janus from seemingly unavoidable doom. So at least some of the space under his hood and visor must have been taken up by a decently sized brain. Maybe the reason he called himself Logic wasn't just hubris.

Or at least that’s the belief he held until the man decided to show up to the coffee shop Janus worked at and announce they needed to talk in front of about a dozen customers and two of Janus coworkers while dressed in all his fancy hero gear.

He had half a mind to tell him that he was welcome to talk, Janus wasn’t stopping him. But he wasn’t exactly planning on listening either.

But there was something about how awkwardly the man held himself that gave Janus pause.

“I’m taking a break.” He announced to no one in particular as he walked around the counter to grab the hero’s wrist. The gesture was so familiar to the events from about a fortnight ago that it made Janus' mind dizzy. He was more than ready to put that unfortunate evening behind them. What did even Logic need him for? It's not like Janus was any significant part-... or at least not a helpful part of the fight.

Deciding not to come up to his own conclusions when he had the hero here, he dragged Logic to the staff’s area. He wasn’t exactly supposed to do that, but fortunately no one was dumb enough to stop Janus from breaking a few insignificant laws. At least not when he was out of costume.

He pushed Logan into their little changing room, glaring at the new hire until he scrambled away, eyes wide, and slammed the door behind him.

“What?” He spat, not bothering to conceal the distaste in his voice. “Was that about?”

The hero shrank in on himself at the tone and Janus felt a strange mix of pride and regret swirling in his stomach. It was probably hunger. He skipped breakfast.

“Well?” He asked again, softer this time. 

“I understand the circumstances are not… ideal, but I assure you I have stumbled upon your workplace by accident and well, since we figured it out while I was in costume, I thought it was best for me not to approach you in my civilian form.”

Janus felt himself pale, but he fought to keep his voice calm. It’s not an accusation. He reminded himself. Figure out what he knows before you incriminate yourself any further.

“And what exactly did ‘we’ figure out?” His voice came out a little harsher than intended. 

“That we’re soulmates.”

Janus wasn’t sure what he expected to hear, but those were the last thing he would have thought of.

“Pardon me?”

“You wanted me to ask you out.” Scratch that, this was even more absurd. Janus decided to ignore that particular plan in favor of addressing the first anomaly.

“Soulmates.” He tested the word out on his tongue, scanning the man in front of him for, well, anything, really. “You think we’re soulmates.”

“I’m quite certain, unless… unless you have a tattoo on your wrist.”

Janus stared at him blankly.

Soulmates.

He was soulmates with a fucking S-grade superhero.

It sure will do wonders for Janus' career.

Just his goddamn luck.

But then again… surely knowing a little more about an important superhero could be… beneficial to him.

"Janus?" The blond snapped his eyes to the figure in front of him.

"How the fuck do you know my name." Shit, he couldn't read minds, could he? Did he just reveal himself as a villain too?

"You have a name tag on."

Janus just blinked at him.

"You were… you weren't aware I was your soulmate."

"Not until now."

"Oh." 

They let the silence stretch out between them before the hero cursed loudly, definitely not causing janus to jump at the sudden sound.

"Goddamnit" he grumbled. "I should have thought this out."

"Clearly." Janus smirked. "But that's alright. At least you have a smart soulmate."

He couldn't see Logic's eyes, but he was certain the look he earned was decidedly unimpressed. The thought of having riled him up made Janus grin.

Maybe this could be fun.

No, focus.

"I want you show me your soul mark."

The hero hid his wrist behind his back.

"No."

"You've seen mine, haven't you?"

"It's different. You don't have a secret identity to protect." Oh he doesn't now, does he?

Janus crossed his arms, staring at his soulmate. His soulmate. This wouldn't bring any good.

"Oh no, we're not doing that. I'm not revealing anything about myself until I get a good look at your wrist."

"Janus, I cannot reveal my identity to you."

"All the more reason I deserve to know this secret." He held out his hand.

The hero signed before finally giving in and planting his wrist in Janus' outstretched arm. The villain made quick work of pulling the cuff up.

Sure enough they were there, nine golden letters that wrapped around bronze skin.

"Allright." He grumbled, releasing the wrist. He took a look around the room, locating a pen and a notebook and quickly wrote down his phone number. He held it out towards the hero but when the man moved to grab it he leaned away. "And try being inconspicuous about future meetings." Janus narrowed his eyes. 

"I wasn't sure how to… approach you otherwise."

"Wear a disguise."

"I'm-"

"I mean other than your hero costume." Janus rolled his eyes but handed him the number none the less. This was surreal. "Call me." Very very surreal. “I need to get back to work.” That at least was familiar. Not pleasant but familiar. “Some of us have jobs.”

“I do have a job as well.”

“Running around the city in skin tight clothes does not count.” Janus grinned.

The hero opened his mouth as if to say something before promptly shutting it, his lips curving into a grimace.

This Janus could get used to.

***

I did originally plan to write a vampire fic for you, and later an anxceit soulmate one. But both are half done (sitting at about 7k combined) so I decided to write something short, and when I'll have the time polish and post the anxceit fic as well :D bonus sketches I did for the vampire au, that never evolved much further than doodles:

#loceit #soulmate au #sanders sides gift exchange #crowtent

[tanushakyrano]

febuwhump day 6: secrets revealed

today’s piece is kind of only loosely based on the prompt? it kind of ran away with me and it technically works but. yeah. it’s 10pm and tomorrow’s one leads on from it so i’m not changing it lol

characters: Scott, Virgil, John

additional warnings: blood and injury

________________

He'd been too slow.

It was a rookie mistake. A miscalculated angle, a reaction time slow by a few milliseconds. It meant that the jagged metal he'd tried to twist away from instead sliced through his side, fabric and flesh tearing as he fell. It was a miracle that he didn’t smash his head open on the hard ground; only his helmet stopped his skull from shattering on impact.

Scott lay there for a few moments, winded. His heart was working in overdrive, thudding away in his chest as he sucked in precious oxygen. Each breath was a challenge; the fall had completely knocked the air from his lungs.

And bloody hell, his stomach hurt.

It was all he could do not to scream. Scott settled for a pained groan instead, curling protectively around the wound as if that would do anything to help.

"Scott? Scott, are you okay?"  

That was John's voice, worry laced in his tone. Why was he worried? Had something happened?

Oh, right. He'd fallen off a very high ledge and practically impaled himself.

Whoops.

"I'm… fine, John," Scott forced out, sucking in a breath as he pushed himself up on one elbow. A fresh wave of fire wracked his body. "Just had a fall."

"Where are you?"  

Virgil. He was somewhere else in the building. Doing something important, probably.

"On the first floor, I'm guessing," he told him. He craned his neck up, trying to see where he'd fallen from. The movement cost him more energy than he would’ve liked. "Yeah, first floor."

"I'm coming to get you."  

"No, no, it's fine, you don't need to," Scott protested, stifling another groan as he sat up properly. He clutched his side with his left hand, trying to stem the blood flow. His uniform was already saturated with it. "I can get myself back to Two. You worry about the civilians."

"Scott, I'm worried about your vitals," John chipped in. Scott pulled a face. "I really think-"  

"I'm fine," Scott ground out. "Seriously. I've had worse."

Which, considering his track record, was not the most comforting thing to say.

The room was starting to swim. Scott pushed himself up from the floor and staggered, spots flickering about the corners of his vision like shoals of fish. His free hand groped for the wall. He just needed to get back to Two. Then he'd be fine. No need to worry anyone.

His hand finally made contact with the wall. Scott paused for a moment, sucking in ragged breaths, before making a first determined move towards the light filtering in at the end of the corridor. The stupid spots in his vision were making it really hard to tell if the light was coming from an open door or a window, but either way he figured it was his best shot at getting out of the place. He inched his hand along the wall, feet shuffling along one dogged step at a time. His other hand was still curled protectively around his abdomen.

Scott was nearly there. He could do this. He could-

His leg gave out.

One knee buckled, and then the other, and before he could even register what was happening he was on the floor. Cold seeped in through his uniform, the heat seal damaged from the tear in the torso. He blinked. Time warped around him. Some part of him registered that this really wasn't a good sign, but the thought flitted away before he could grasp it.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor.

"Scott, are you- shit."

Blue and green. He could see blue and green. A strong hand cupped his face, the other moving his hand away from his side.

 Virgil.

"Thought I told you to…go help those people…" he murmured, the words blending together as he tried to get them out.

“You’re lucky I don’t always listen to you.”

His brother brushed a finger over Scott’s visor, his hand separated from Scott’s face by the plastic and metal that had saved his life only a few minutes prior. His eyes were alight with controlled panic as he scrutinised Scott’s side.

“Jesus, Scott. Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”

"Virgil, what's going on?"  

John's voice was so, so far away.

His head seemed like it was detached from his body. “Didn’t…want you to worry…”

“You idiot,” Virgil choked out. He moved closer instinctively as Scott tipped forward, guiding his head onto his shoulder. “Of course we’re gonna worry, it’s our job.”

“Sorry…”

“Hey, no, don’t.” He was being pulled down, down. “It’s okay, Scott. You’re okay.”

Scott sank into the darkness.

#cora writes #thunderbirds are go #scott tracy #virgil tracy #john tracy #febuwhump23 #whump #tw injury #tw blood

[roseianxiety]

Always You

Summary:As a young boy, Virgil often swooped in to save his geeky and timid childhood best friend, Roman, from his bullies. After years have passed without seeing each other, his friend has come home from abroad and now a completely different person than before, and ready to sweep Virgil off his feet. Virgil, of course, falls head over heels for the other.

AO3 - Part 2, Part 3

Content Warning: None

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Chapter Three

"Sweetie, you forgot to put sunblock on!"Roman's mom shouted at his twin, Remus, while she smeared sunblock cream onto his face. She then moves her attention back to Roman, "Stay still, Roman, I'm not done yet."She scolded him.

"But I wanna go play nowww!''Roman whined, making puppy dog eyes at his mother. His mother rolled her eyes at him before sighing. "Alright, fine, you can go. But be careful, alright?"She said, done with putting suncream on Roman. The child grinned happily then running off to find his best friend was just squatting by the shore.

"Whatcha doing?"Roman chirps, taking a peak over Virgil's shoulder to see what he was doing. Virgil jumps a bit at Roman's sudden appearance then turns around, his brown eyes meeting with Roman's hazel ones. "I found some sea glass."He says nonchalantly.

Roman raises a single eyebrow out of curiosity, "Sea glass? What's that?". He asked curiously. Virgil holds out a handful of sea glass towards Roman, "These are sea glass," He begins slowly, "They're made from broken glass bottles thrown at sea and like get all smoothed out by the sea and stuff throughout the years until it looks like a shiny crystal...". He rambles on, explaining to Roman about sea glass. Roman listens attentively and takes the sea glass pieces from Virgil's hand and inspects it closely.

"It's so pretty...''Roman mutters, eyes sparkling as he looks at the red sea glass. "Yah, it does look nice."Virgil agrees with him before suddenly remembering something important. "I forgot to mention, the red ones are pretty rare.".

Roman hums in understanding then turns his attention back to the sea glass, examining it in awe, "Where did you even find these, anyways?". He asks. Virgil shrugs. "Just by the shore.".

An idea then pops up in Roman's mind. "Let's go find more sea glass!"He exclaims excitedly, Virgil nodding in agreement. The two then dashed off to search more for sea glass and maybe some cool seashells too.

"Woww!! We found a lot!"Roman squealed, flapping his hands in excitement. Virgil nods, feeling a bit proud of himself for finding such beautiful treasures along with his best friend.

"Roman! Virgil! Come here for a second, sweeties."

Both Roman and Virgil's head turned when they heard their names being called. They immediately ran to their mothers who had called for them.

"What is it, mom?"Roman quickly questions his mom.

His mom smiles brightly as she shows them a camera, "I just remembered I brought a camera with us. Now stand close, I'm gonna take a picture of you cuties.".

The two kids nodded eagerly at her and positioned themselves beside each other, getting ready for their picture to be taken. They smiled happily at the camera, awaiting for Roman's mom to take a picture.

"You two look absolutely adorable!"Roman's mom squealed as she looked at the picture she took, Virgil's mom agreeing with her.

"Now run along, you two, and continue your game."Roman's mom giggles and shoos them off, Roman and Virgil running off to retrieve their found treasures once again.

They spent most of the day playing in the sea or finding more sea glass. By the time the sun was starting to set, their families were already packing up to leave.

Roman was fiddling with his bead bracelets while he waited in the car. He was quite upset that they had to go home now, he was going to miss his best friend. Well, technically Virgil lives across the street from him but that wasn't the case. His parents said that they were moving to Italy and living there with his grandparents and Roman wasn't that thrilled hearing it.

He was going to miss his hometown, his neighborhood, his school, his friends and especially his best friend. Roman was going to miss his best friend so much. He was sad that they weren't going to meet again. He didn't want to leave but he needed to.

Roman's thoughts were cut off when he heard knocking against the car window. He looks up and sees Virgil there, waving a little, waiting for him to open up the window.

Roman smiles widely when he sees him and he quickly gets up and quickly rolls down the car window. "Hey Vee, why are you here? I thought you already went home.".

Virgil shrugs, "Nah, mom's still packing up our stuff back in the car.". He then added, his expression changing. "Hey, I heard about the news... that you and your family are leaving by tomorrow.". A small frown formed on his lips as he spoke.

Roman nods at him, confirming his statement with a silent 'yeah'. He then notices Virgil's expression change even more. It looked like he wanted to say something more. "I'm going to miss you, Vee."Roman muttered sadly.

He had always been good friends with Virgil from the start. Even though he was younger, they grew up together and they knew each other for a long time.

"I'll miss you too, Ro. You'll come back, right?"Virgil replied, a soft hopefulness evident in his voice.

Roman stayed quiet for a bit, he didn't know what to answer his best friend's question. He wasn't even sure if they were going to come back.

"I will...".

He smiles at Virgil softly, the latter returning it to him as well. They stare at each other for a few seconds before Virgil looks away and fishes out something from his pocket. It was the red sea glass from earlier. "Here, you can have this.". Virgils hands it to Roman.

Roman's gaze softened, "Are you sure?", He asks him quietly. "Yeah. I want ya to have it."Virgil replies. "Okay." Roman whispered, accepting the small trinket. He shoves it in his pocket before quickly unlocking the car door, ushering Virgil to stand back for a bit as he gets out of the car.

Once he was out, he turned to Virgil and immediately pulled him in for a tight and loving hug, squeezing him tightly. "Promise me we'll be bestest friends forever and always, okay?"Roman whispers against his chest, hugging him tighter.

He hears Virgil laugh softly, "I promise.".

"I'll never forget you, Vee."

"I won't forget you too, Princey."

•=•

"Roman, perché stai facendo le valigie (Roman, why are you packing)!?"An old woman exclaims with slight frustration as she watches his grandson pace around his room and packing his stuff in boxes and suitcases.

Roman responds while he tries to close his filled suitcase, "Nonna, torno in America (Grandma, I'm going back to America).". He tells her as he zips his bag closed.

"Ma perché? (But why?)"His grandmother, or nonna, questions him in exasperation. "Non ti piace più qui (Do you not like it here anymore)?".

"No, nonna. I like it here in Italia but I have a dream to fulfill!''Roman exclaims passionately, facing his Nonna and grabbing her and twirling her around.

She chuckles in amusement at her grandson's behavior. "Si tratta di quel ragazzo? Virgilio, vero? (Is this about that boy? Virgil, was it?)". She inquires curiously.

Roman blushes slightly, "Sì, nonna. But it's Virgil, not Virgilio."He giggles slightly. His nonna merely rolled her eyes, playfully slapping him on the arm. "Ah, stessa cosa (Ah, same thing).".

"Ow, what's that for!?"

"Shush, Romano. Faresti meglio a portare qui quel ragazzo così posso conoscere il mio futuro nipote. (You better bring that boy here so I can meet my future grandson-in-law).".

Roman pouts slightly, he can't help but blush more at her nonna's statement. "He's just my best friend, nonna! E non chiamarmi Romano (And don't call me Romano).".

His nonna huffs before speaking in a matter-of-factly way while crossing her arms. "Non mentirmi, bambino. Ho visto come ti brillano gli occhi quando parli di lui (Don't lie to me, child. I've seen how your eyes sparkle when you talk about him).". That caused Roman to become into a sputtering mess.

"E allora come vuoi che ti chiami!? Romulus? (And what do you want me to call you then!? Romulus?)"The old lady snarked.

Roman crossed his own arms in annoyance, rolling his eyes at his nonna's response. "Ugh, you are insufferable sometimes, nonna!". His nonna simply laughs and waves him away, "Anyway, you continue packing while I go wake your brother.".

She leaves without giving him another chance to respond and Roman groans loudly as he slumps over, flopping onto his bed. He stares at the cream colored ceiling decorated with glow in the dark star stickers reminiscing his old memories of his childhood friend.

He missed him a lot. It has been years since they last contacted each other. The last time he could remember their interaction was years ago, back when he was fifteen. He wonders if Virgil already forgot about him. He hoped not.

Roman shook those thoughts away before sitting up on his bed, deciding to continue packing his things.

•=•

Roman stood in front of a door, hesitating if he was going to knock or not. He must admit, he was pretty nervous... Not that there was anything to be nervous about. Well, there is. Roman was nervous to finally see Virgil after all these years. He was nervous to see his childhood best friend, the man who set his heart with a passionate fire.

Roman takes a deep breath, raising his hand to knock on the door. After about 3,4 minutes later, the door opened revealing a man the same age as him or maybe older. His hair covered almost half of his face, he looked like he just came out of the shower. Virgil...

"Roman?"Virgil asked, looking surprised to see him there.

Roman's face brightened when the other still recognized him. "Virgil, is that you, mio amico!?''He cried out happily before pulling Virgil in a tight bear hug.

"I-I can't breathe."Virgil wheezed out. Roman gasps immediately let go of him as he realized he had squeezed Virgil before apologizing profusely.

As he tried to catch his breath, he heard Roman gasp and pull back, only then realizing that he was squeezing Virgil too tightly.

"Mi dispiace, sorry, Virge. I've missed you so much!"Roman exclaimed excitedly, still clutching Virgil by the shoulders. He indeed missed the other so much."It's nice to see you, too, Ro." Virgil replied softly as he looked up at Roman.

Roman realized just now that Virgil was shorter than him. Virgil used to be the one taller than him.

"Wow... uh, you've changed. A lot."Virgil commented as he observed Roman up and down. Roman notices a small blush spread on Virgil's cheeks. He wonders what caused that, the weather isn't even hot.

"O si, and so do you! You've grown as well! Though, not to offend, but why are you puny? You were so much taller than me."Roman said, cocking his head sideways. He noticed the faint blush on Virgil's cheeks deepen.

Virgil shrugged and averted his gaze from him. "I dunno, I guess I didn't have a growth spurt as much as you did.".

Before Roman could say another word, Mrs. Barret, Virgil's mom suddenly popped out of nowhere and completely interrupted them.

"Oh, Roman! You're finally here."She cheered happily before approaching the both of them. Roman smiled brightly at Mrs. Barret before taking a step forward and embracing her in a warm embrace for a bit.

"Good morning, Mrs. Barret. You look beautiful as ever."Roman greeted politely with a charming smile, pressing a soft kiss on the back of her hand. Mrs. Barret, chuckled lightly. "Such a sweet young man. You flatter me too much, child.". Roman flushes at the comment slightly.

"Anyway, brunch is ready. You two follow me to the kitchen."She said as she motioned Virgil and Roman after her and headed to the dining room.

"You know, you used to be timid and shy. What happened to that?"Virgil spoke softly as he glanced at Roman.

Roman looked at him and smiled, "Life changes people.". He was tempted to admit that he was the sole reason he changed himself for the better but stopped himself. Roman knew that would be reckless and he didn't want to ruin what was left of his friendship with Virgil.

"Yeah, I guess they do..."Virgil muttered before following after Roman. Roman smiles and turns his attention forwards.

--------------------------------------------------

Writing Taglist: @cutebisexualmess (please tell me if you want to be added or removed in the tag list)

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #roman sanders #virgil sanders #prinxiety #tss fanfic #ts roman #ts virgil #vee writes

[artwithoutblood]

Sorry that typo should have said ‘he “read” the prepared book’. I mean Dorian obviously made the exactly locket sized hole in that book ahead of time and had someone put the corresponding locket on MC before they even reached him. Yes, I bet the others remained silent about its purpose.

Perhaps I was wrong about it being formal ranks. Perhaps going further down the circles the punished sins become more grievous and so the keepers themselves become more wicked, more devious, more powerful.

I still don’t trust the fruity tea. Teas can be very aromatic and possibly unfamiliar enough to cover a lot of tastes. He did step away to prepare it.

And doesn’t he have a close friend who is omniscient within a certain range, experiences art as a personal interpretation of reality, and messes with people’s perception? The same friend that works with someone who deals in delusion? Also lives with someone whose words are powerful enough to shape reality, put you to sleep instantly, and is a doctor of sorts?

I wonder about those little bottles the other mortal saw in the cupboard. The special one found in the music room. There are a number of things both magical and chemical to soothe, to excite emotions, to dull thought and make one more pliable to suggestion.

Not that Dorian would need it. He’s ancient, manipulative and has a mismatched (potentially demon) eye himself. Maybe he gets insights he shouldn’t have or is simply as experienced in winning gullible people over as he was in life. He definitely gets a lot of quiet time to scheme.

I’m still confused how he managed the ‘error’ that got MC sent down to hell in the first place though. Perhaps the dogma regarding literal interpretation of scripture is that strict or for some reason each soul must make that journey. They weren’t a suicide and also that would have made them part of the woods (plus only able to speak under certain conditions?).

I still have not read Dante’s Inferno directly… but Virgil wasn’t allowed in heaven because he was born before Christ and a pagan while alive. The first obviously doesn’t apply to MC so perhaps it’s down to a schism in their church. There have been many ideological conflicts. So they chose the wrong Christian sect and were disqualified on a technicality? Were they somehow unbaptised despite being devout?

It doesn’t seem likely that Dorian didn’t plan on their coming. The way he killed MC was what he could do in his bird form but it also meant they died suddenly - so quickly and unexpectedly that they died unshriven. That has to be it.

Or maybe despite being a yandere he routinely murders a number of romantic prospects just to see which ones will enter hell and potentially succumb :/

He was pretty quick to discard MC when he didn’t immediately get what he wanted.

i had dorian make fruity tea because he's a fruit that's the only explanation i can give you 😭 he likes flavor! and i hate bitter tea.

the most dorian probably would've asked if aeron would've been to keep an eye on m/c when he couldn't. but that's delusion's passive anyways, like it's a pokémon. so it's not like aeron wasn't already doing that.

concerning the little purple vial found in awb, that was made by another oc of mine. he's dead. he used to run a drug bar before he was overcome with. something. that's not for y'all to know yet. that oc and dorian have never met. dorian knows of items like that, but he's never tried those specific drinks. those did not come into play.

iirc that's kinda what limbo is: sorry you were born before christ. xx. you get the caves bitch

although not based entirely on real christianity and mostly stealing aesthetics and terminology, i might say one reason why dorian killed the mc, as opposed to waiting or getting someone else to, is because the mc was killed and touched by a demon. it's a claim. god doesn't want that. i fuck around and find out.

and about the ending part: i think he tries romantic prospects until one sticks. and despite having you in his hands, he's a bit of a brat.

#dorian ask #aeron ask #li ask #10:16 ask

[katblu42]

Promises

For @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt #180

I'm super glad that @alexthefly covered the part I had in my head that I couldn't get to in the word limit, because I could not have written it that well!

And, since @gumnut-logic beat me to the first part that came to mind, and covered that so perfectly . . .

This bit kind of follows on from there.

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: G Word Count: approx 978

Virgil had made the request of Scott before he left for basic training.  The desperation buried layers deep beneath the words echoed in his own heart.  He had made the promise as much for himself as for his brother.

The two of them had been so close for so long, had shared so many moments, so many secrets, and such a strong connection that Scott found it difficult to adjust to not having the brother who had become his best friend around.  Often had he turned to say something, or ask something or share something with Virgil, only to feel his shoulders drop and the words die on his lips as the smile faded from his eyes when he realised he wasn’t there.  So often in fact that Smithy had commented on it repeatedly.

“Looking for your shadow again, Tracy?”

And the name had stuck.  To Scott’s Air Force buddies Virgil was now known as Shadow.  He would never say it to Virgil, but Scott saw the truth in the nickname.  He really did feel like he was missing a part of himself, and yet he was still whole. What was missing was the presence he’d come to think of as always being there, just over his shoulder, a few steps behind, or right beside him.

True to his word, he had written texts and emails almost every day, and called home as often as he could to speak to the brothers he missed.  His new band of Air Force brothers were great, but home was where his heart remained, and writing to Virgil was less about keeping his promise and more of a necessity for his own sanity.

*

A few years later, with Virgil and John both now away from home, in different cities, different time zones, and communications with Scott more restricted due to strict Air Force protocols while on missions, it had become customary for the two next eldest Tracy boys to call and chat at least three times a week before John headed to bed.

This particular night Virgil had played piano as they talked, mostly about the stars John had been gazing at, and a request one of his professors had made for some of John’s assignment papers to be used in new teaching texts.

Both the music and the stars were comfortingly familiar, a soothing balm for John’s conflicted mind as he mulled over his decision. 

If he agreed to what the professor was asking, some of the information contained in his assignments would need to be rewritten in a way that was a little less technical, a little more approachable for those new to astronomical study.  He wasn’t sure he could do that.

“I know you can do it, John.”  Virgil stopped playing for a moment.  “You have such a poetic way of talking about the stars, and an infectious enthusiasm for all the discoveries made through exploration of space.  Just write as though you’re explaining it to me.  Or, even better, write the way you talk to Alan about the stars.”

John sighed.  Virgil resumed playing.  John changed the subject.

“Is this one of your compositions?  I don’t think I’ve heard this one before.”

“It is.  It’s new.  Still working out the kinks.”

“Promise you’ll write this one down.  I like this one, and I’d hate for you to forget it when you move onto the next piece.”

Virgil gave a soft chuckle, not surprised that John was enjoying listening to a piece that was essentially an attempt to capture his brother’s love of the stars.

“I promise.”  Virgil stopped playing again and looked directly at the holocam, trying to look John in the eye.  “But you’ve got to promise you’ll write those teaching texts for your professor.  I can read through what you write and let you know if I think there’s anything that’s still hard to understand if you like?”

There was a moment’s pause.  “Send me a recording of this piece of music, and I’ll send you the new version of my astrology paper.”

“Deal.”

*

Another couple of years go by and the littlest brothers are growing up.  Gordon is Olympics bound, excited and apprehensive as he prepares to join the rest of the US swim team and depart for the games.  His bags are all packed and Virgil is here to drive him to the airport.

“Here,” Virgil thrusts a book into Gordon’s hand.  “You’re about to experience a whole bunch of new and exciting things, many of which you’ll never want to forget.  This is a journal.  Promise you’ll write everything down – how it all feels, the little details that catch your attention, the big moments you think you’ll never forget, everything.  I want to see it all through your eyes.  That way it’ll be like I’m there in the village with you.”

Gordon wrapped his big brother in a tight hug and held him there until the tears that threatened were back under control.

“Thanks, Virgil.  I promise I will.”

*

And soon enough Alan is navigating his way through home schooling on Tracy Island, racing ahead in the subjects he enjoys, but tending to lag with the assignments he’s less interested in.  All his big brothers, and his Grandma have helped supervise his studies, and taken their turns at keeping him on track.  Today it’s John who’s checking in on his progress.

“I know you like the math and science subjects more than English, but you can’t let your assignments slide like this, Alan.”

“I know, I know.  Education is important.”  The eyeroll was big enough to see from space.

“Promise you’ll write those two overdue book reports.  Get them done by the end of the week, then maybe I can show you the photos I took of that nebula we talked about.”

“Really?!  Photos from Thunderbird Five?  I promise!  I’ll get started now.”

#flashfictionfridayofficial #promise you'll write #fff180 #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds are go #virgil tracy #scott tracy #john tracy #gordon tracy #alan tracy

[silverstarfics]

Virgil’s day of @thunder-pride !! Here, have something I wrote at 2am because who needs sleep schedules? (I’m joking. Please get some sleep, guys. Yes, this is directed at one person in particular). It technically follows on from my fic for Day 3, but it can be read as a stand alone too :)

AO3 link

Virgil hesitated in the doorway, quickly backed away before he could be spotted, then began pacing back-and-forth along the corridor again. At this rate he was likely to wear a hole in the patterned rug which Grandma had brought back from holiday, lying in pride of place at the foot of the stairs. He’d taken off his sneakers in an attempt to reduce this risk but even in socks it was still a distinct possibility.

“What’s wrong with you?” Gordon asked, knocking the front door shut with his heel. “Yo, Virg.” He kicked his shoes under the coat rack and peeled off his sweaty socks, tossing them at his brother’s head. “What’s up?”

Virgil slowed to a momentary halt. “What are you doing here?”

“Um…” Gordon shot him a weird look. “I live here?”

“Don’t you have swim practice?”

“That ended like twenty minutes ago.” Gordon’s voice grew muffled as he disappeared into the living room on the hunt for his hoodie. “So? Why are you acting like more of a freak than usual?”

“Thanks for that.”

Virgil propped himself against the wall and knocked his head back against the plasterwork with an inward groan. Gordon’s practice finished an hour after school, which meant he had officially been pacing in this corridor for seventy minutes. It was official – he was a disaster.

There was no reason for this to scare him so much. He knew his entire family would love and accept him regardless of his identity. And yet the idea of telling his grandmother that he had a boyfriend seemed comparable to holding a fully grown Huntsman spider in his bare hands which was saying a lot given his fear that was fast becoming undeniable arachnophobia.

God, this was so stupid. He knocked his head against the wall again, this time with an audible thud.

“Uh, Virg?” Gordon peered around the door. “I know I was giving you shit before, but, like… are you okay? Because pacing in the corridor is usually Scott’s thing. You don’t have to take over just because he’s at Yale now. This house doesn’t actually need holes in the floor. There are already enough in the walls.”

“That’s because you keep kicking soccer balls indoors.”

“Really? That’s the part you focussed on?”

Virgil slid down the wall to land in a sorrowful heap.

“I’m…” He flapped a hand vaguely.

“Annoying? A total dork?” Gordon grinned. “I’ve got a whole list, I can keep going.”

“I don’t know how to be a functional person,” Virgil corrected, drawing his knees up to hide his face.

He wrapped his arms around his legs and willed himself to become invisible. Or maybe sink through the fabric of reality into a universe where conversations didn’t fill him with dread and ordinary, everyday things such as speaking in class or getting a lower grade or holding a boy’s hand in a corridor didn’t terrify him.

It was so, so dumb. Sometimes he wondered if Scott had stolen all the confidence genes and left none for the rest of them, only Gordon seemed to flourish in any environment which sort of disproved that theory.

Steps creaked on the broken floorboard to his right that no one had gotten around to replacing. He didn’t lift his face from his knees. It was easier to keep his eyes shut and just focus on breathing, which had suddenly become a lot harder than it should have been. Someone flicked him on the head but he only registered the sting as background noise.

“Virgil?”

At fourteen, Gordon was now steadfast in his belief that he was ‘basically an adult already’ but every so often a very childlike fear would creep back into his voice. This was one such instance.

“Um, Virg? You need to breathe. That’s an actual thing humans have to do to stay alive.” He let out a nervous laugh. “Dude, I’m not kidding. You’re kinda freaking me out here. Do I need to get Grandma? Or we could call Scott but he’s probably busy with annoyingly cool college stuff. I mean, we could try ringing John because he’s a nerd with no social life so everyone at Harvard definitely thinks he’s a weirdo, but I’m not sure what use he’d be.”

It was easy to tell when Gordon was nervous because he started rambling. And yeah, he’d recently undergone a transformation into a bit of an obnoxious, rude teenager, but he still had a kind heart and behind closed doors he was still a good brother too, even if he refused to let the rest of the world see it yet. So, it wasn’t really too much of a surprise when he plonked himself down next to Virgil and shuffled close enough to press their shoulders together.

“So,” Gordon declared with a healthy dose of fake cheer. “How’s your day going?”

Virgil choked on a damp laugh which made him cough. This had the bonus of resetting his breathing rate even if it was fairly gross. “You know, shockingly, I think I’ve had better.”

Gordon elbowed him lightly. “Do I need to murder someone?”

Virgil dragged the back of his hand across his eyes with a sniff. “Yeah, right. How are you gonna murder anyone in my grade, short stuff?”

“Fair point. Why are all juniors so freakishly tall this year? Apart from you, obviously. Anyway, I could totally take out their kneecaps. I know a girl on the lacrosse team and she’d lend me a stick. Just… whack, you know? Or I could publicly humiliate them. I’ve still got stink bombs left over from last summer. Just say the word and I’ll ruin them.”

Virgil exhaled in a rush. “Nobody did anything.” He twisted his hands together. There was still paint dried under his nails and he longed to return to earlier’s art lesson when he’d made up his mind to come out to Grandma and had felt so certain about it. “It’s just… me.”

“The thing that’s bothering you is… yourself?” Gordon tilted his head with a confused frown. “I know I’m the family idiot, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense, Vee.”

“Hey.” Virgil thumped him on the arm. “Don’t call yourself an idiot.”

Gordon just looked at him.

“You’re not an idiot.”

“Yeah, okay, tell that to my Physics paper. Anyway, that is so not the point right now. How are you upsetting yourself? Seems kinda dumb to me. Unless this is a new thing you’re trying? Tortured young artist, some crap like that.”

Virgil fought a smile. “No, it’s not a thing. It’s just…”

“You?”

“Me.”

Gordon slid down the wall with a loud groan. “Virg, you’re killing me here. We’re going in circles. I feel like I’m swimming laps again. Just tell me already, jeez.” He shuffled to sit in front of Virgil, propping his chin in his hands with a mischievous smile. “Tell me, tell me, tell me. Are you getting annoyed yet? Because I won’t stop until you tell me, tell me, tell me, tell-”

“I think I’m pansexual.”

“-me. Wait, what?”

Virgil stared at the flecks of dried paint on his jeans. His voice sounded embarrassingly small as he repeated softly, “I think I’m pansexual.”

“You think or you know?”

“I know.”

“Huh. Cool.” Gordon frowned. “Wait, is that what’s been bothering you? Because you know none of us are homophobic asshats. Also, like, have you met John? No way he’s straight. And I made out with Robby at Taylor’s party so I’m definitely not- I mean, uh, I made out with Robby at a place that was totally not Taylor’s house because of course I didn’t go to a party when Dad said I was grounded.”

Virgil wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. There were too many emotions crammed into his chest. He ended up making a humiliating broken noise that was partway between a sob and a laugh.

Gordon awkwardly wrapped his arms around him, uncertain whether a hug was welcome, and Virgil melted against him, trying to pretend as if his eyes weren’t welling. He tucked his face into his little brother’s shoulder and fought back tears.

“Hey, Virg?” Gordon sounded uncharacteristically genuine. “It’s okay. You know it’s okay, right? Like, you’re my brother and I support you and, I dunno, love you or something. So, um, you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Thanks.” Virgil drew an unsteady breath. “Really. Thanks. That… helps.” He withdrew to wipe tears from his face, ducking his head to hide his expression. “You need a shower, by the way. You stink of chlorine.”

“Dude, I just spent an hour in a pool. What did you expect?” Gordon moved to sit beside him again, stretching his legs across the corridor and cracking his knuckles just to see Virgil cringe. “So… have you got a girlfriend? Boyfriend? Partner?”

“Oh my god.”

“What? I’m curious.”

“We’re not having this conversation.”

“Oh, but we are.” Gordon fished a celery crunch bar out of his pocket and tore the wrapper open with his teeth. “So?”

“I might have a boyfriend.”

“I knew it!” Gordon let out a delighted laugh. “I’ve always wanted to threaten someone. Like, if you ever hurt my brother I will hunt you down and destroy you.”

“I’m officially never introducing you. Anyway, I feel like you’re forgetting the part where I’m the big brother here. It’s my job to threaten your dates.”

“Yeah, but you’re… you know?”

“No?”

Gordon gestured vaguely. “You have soft feelings.”

“Okay, we’re done here.”

“Aw, Virg, c’mon…”

“Bye, Gordon, see you later.”

“Don’t you mean bi Gordon?”

“Huh?”

Gordon hauled himself upright with a sigh. “Never mind. Go tell Grandma about your boyfriend. She might get distracted enough that she forgets to make dinner and we can order pizza.”

Virgil hesitated. “Hey, uh, Gordon?”

“Nope. I don’t want to hear it. I know that face. Don’t go bringing all your gross emotions into my space. You’ll ruin my vibe.” Gordon pushed him towards the kitchen. “Go!”

#all i do is write these guys as teens these days #not sure how that happened #also this was supposed to be Virgil and Grandma but Gordon took over #which really shouldn't surprise me anymore but hey #thunderpride #thunderpride 2023 #thunderbirds are go

[gale-dragon-writer]

How do you think Ritchie would be recruited into Young Justice? Would his backstory be the same as in Shock?

Hmm, well, I guess I can tell you all what I plan to do when I get around to that part in my YJ fics since it's technically not a spoiler so much as a plot point.

In my YJ fics, instead of Vergil being captured off the streets to be experimented on, it's Richie since he had actually ran away from his rather 'toxic' home (ie He couldn't take his father's rather blatant racism [it's canon] anymore) and has been living on the streets for a few months. Vergil doesn't realise that his best friend has been living on the streets until he visits Foley's residence to check up on Richie, who has been absent from school w/o notice for a week and hasn't been replying to any calls or texts. Meeting Richie's dad makes the teenager understand why the blonde avoided inviting him over or made up some kind of excuse as to when he couldn't come over. Talking to Richie's mother was a lot more pleasant by comparison, which is how Vergil learns that Richie ran away from home. The lack of concern from Richie's father about his missing son was more than confusing and concerning to Vergil. Same with Richie's mother until she told him that she assumed that her son was staying with him. When Virgil tells her that Richie wasn't 'crashing with him until things blew over' or the fact that he didn't know that his best friend ran away from home, it causes her to become more panicky and rushes to call the police to report her son officially missing.

After talking to his own father about Richie's home situation, Robert Hawkins explains that not everyone has a 'good' homelife or 'understanding' parents and that Richie chose not to be like his dad by keeping his mind open to others rather than closing it off. Vergil then asks his father the question of him being a bad friend for not noticing that Richie wasn't living with his parents, to which Robert tells his son that he was a good friend. The father explains to his son that he was worried about his friend Before he knew about his home life and is still worried about his now missing friend.

Still feeling guilty, Vergil goes out to find Richie on his own accord, despite the warning from the police. He gets into a situation that causes him to get severely electrocuted thus activating his Meta-Gene to save his life (I already have this planned, but I want that to be a surprise for the readers). Now that he has electric superpowers, Vergil immediately picks up the pace of his search for his best friend, even though he's still learning to control his powers along the way.

During Vergil's search, he runs into the Young Justice Team, all of whom thought the newly powered teen was being a self-made vigilante. After a fight and a talk-down, Vergil explains what he was doing and that he was still trying to control his new powers along the way. While the team do admire the teen for his determination and willingness to find his missing friend, they did have concerns about the fact that Vergil didn't have complete control over his powers (which was causing a lot of unintentional havoc and damage).

After a nice little agreement, the Young Justice Team takes over the Missing Person's Case while Vergil trains under Black Lightning to get the hang of his new powers. Over the next few days, the Missing Person's Case quickly becomes a Missing People Mission.

Some plot happens, and then Vergil and Richie are reunited and officially join the Young Justice Team as Static and Gear.

}I{

Obviously, I'll be elaborating on this plot when I get there. So until then~.

#young justice au #answered asks #yj au

[ashs-random-writing]

Dancing with Death

Chapter 5~Explainations

Ao3

REBLOGS>>>>LIKES

--

Virgil has been the God of Death since the dawn of time. He had earned many titles from the mortals, though his favourite was 'The Grim Reaper'. Once in the afterlife, most know him as King Virgil

Patton, as the recently deceased, gets led into the afterlife by a cloaked, masked figure. He wants to know more about them

--

Janus’s best friend had died. He had died four months ago.

So why was he stood next to his own grave? Janus wondered if this was just some manifestation of his grief his mind had created, but somewhere deep down he knew this was real.

He walked over to Patton, noticing things that looked wrong. His skin was a pale, grey colour, his freckles were softly glowing, his teeth were just slightly too sharp, he didn’t look solid, his eyebags were deep, and overall, he looked dead.

Janus stared at the apparition with conflicting emotions. 

“You’re not supposed to be alive, what are you doing alive?” He demanded

Patton smiled softly

“I’m not, see?” He reached out to touch Janus, and his hand passed right through. He was cold.

“So, what are you? Like a ghost?” He asked, his voice getting snappy to hide his surfacing grief

“Not exactly,” 

Janus frowned

“Because that’s definitely a straight answer” He snarked, crossing his arms

Patton rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile

“I don’t really know how to explain what I am, sorry. I just know that no one is supposed to be able to see me. Well, until they’re dead anyway. Then I help lead them into the afterlife” He was smiling.

Janus looked away

“So why can I see you? As far as I’m aware I’m still alive and well”

Patton shrugged

“You’re not dead, I can tell that much. Maybe Virgil would know...”

Before Janus had a chance to ask who Virgil was, someone (presumably Virgil) appeared.

Janus stared at the new arrival in fear. His skin went cold, his heartrate went up, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of them. Whatever they were, they were wrong.

It felt like everything around them was becoming nothing, like they were a black hole of energy. They were tall, at least a foot and a half taller than Janus. They wore a dark cloak, and a gold mask that looked like a skull. They were frowning at him. 

He understood. This was Death.

He blinked. They were holding ice-cream. 

He moved his eyes to his friend, who didn’t seem as upsetting to look at anymore, compared to ‘Virgil’. Patton was staring at them with a wide smile as though he didn’t feel the aura of fear they were commanding, and didn’t notice how terrifying and intimidating they were.

Patton even pulled them into a hug. 

Janus took a deep breath and looked at his friend with the calmest expression he could muster whilst feeling as though he would die any second

“Patton. Is that the grim reaper?”

Patton nodded but then paused in thought

“Well, technically, but it was his last day yesterday! I do the reapering now”

Janus didn’t even know what to say, he just brought his hand up to his face and groaned

“Just- do you know why I’m able to see you, or not?” He asked weakly.

Patton looked up at Virgil who waved his hand and some sort of letter or note appeared. Patton read the note and nodded

“Virgil thinks you might have magic and that might’ve had a part in why you can see us”

--

Virgil was wandering around, waiting for Patton’s alone time to finish

He heard his name being said by his friend and he showed up immediately, noticing the living person who was watching them. He recognised him as one of Patton’s living friends

He could sense magic on him. Virgil frowned. He had never liked magic users, and most of them didn’t like him.

Though it might explain why Janus could see them. They were in a graveyard; if he was in the graveyard to see Patton’s grave, and therefore Patton, his magic may have reacted to Patton’s presence and given Janus a way to see Patton.

Janus didn’t seem to realise he even had magic, which made Virgil somehow more calm and more nervous. If he didn’t know he had magic before now, he wouldn’t know how to use it, but if he had just discovered that he was more powerful than most living people, he might grow egotistical

Virgil knew that some magic users (though an occurrence like this had not happened in centuries) would find spells to elongate their life span, living far past their normal lives, and somehow getting the idea that they must’ve been powerful enough to kill a god.

They couldn’t, of course, but there were at least twenty that had tried. All of them were dealt with swiftly, but it was still annoying. Especially since he was more likely to have to deal with it than the other gods, with eighteen out of twenty of the attacks being directed at him

He shared his sensing of magic to Patton, who relayed it to the magic user in question

Janus didn’t seem to agree with that assessment, claiming that he would obviously know if he had magic. Virgil crossed his arms and looked down at the mortal.

He was tall for a human, taller than Patton at least, but Virgil still had to look down to see him

He watched Patton and Janus talk for a while, feeling increasingly more protective of his friend as he felt Janus’s magic start getting ready to lash out as he grew more frustrated

Virgil did not like Patton’s friend.

--

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper​

#sanders sides fic #sanders side fic #sanders sides gt #sanders sides #sanders sides story #sanders sides g/t #sanders sides ghost #sanders sides ghost au #g/t #Giant/tiny #grim reaper #my writing

[hyperfixated-homo]

🌻

right now im having thoughts about how people dont mess with the mechanics of the mindscape enough. i mentioned this partially when i posted about how people don't utilize the sides rooms enough (and i stand by that, there is so much missed potential there) but i'm also talking about some of the functions of each side kinda?

like, one specific example, ive seen a couple fics where logan is in charge of this library that contains all of thomas' memories, and thats cool and all but i think all of them kinda gloss over the fact that cannonically, patton is in charge of memory keeping. like, he is the nostalgia parent side. why do we assign that role to logan so often? (maybe not that often, but often enough that i think about it at least)

the main exception i think is janus, who's job is literally to hide things from thomas, and the fandom has portrayed doing that in every way ever.

but since im here, im just gonna list some of my favourite ideas for other functions/mindscape fuckery people could use (basically, headcannon dumping)

Logan being in charge of Thomas' base functions. He is the brain, so I think a lot more of his time would be spent making sure his brain is sending the right signals to all the parts of Thomas' body, instead of just working on memories and planning. This means we can still keep our workaholic Logan agenda too :)

The subconscious is where everyone's rooms are, not just the dark sides. When a side is not actively being used, they go back to the subconscious, because they are always in the back of Thomas' mind. The "mind palace" is the only place they can all meet without being affected by the room they are in

Adding on to my previous point, in the past the dark sides would only be able to talk to each other if they went to each others rooms, since more often than not the light sides are occupying the mind palace. I like to believe they've all kinda got an immunity to each other's rooms now, from how often they accidentally slept over

The imagination isn't really a thing, it's just Roman and Remus creating new rooms and areas already connected to the core mind palace (which roman technically created as well?)

Remus lives in the walls. This isn't a joke. He would.

Oh also, I've seen stories where Remus is the only side who can break into any room in the mindscape, and I support it wholeheartedly. He's the most intrusive mf ever and he's so proud of it

I mentioned before that Patton would be in charge of memories, but I don't really think that's true. I think they all control memory management to some extent. Patton is in charge of nostalgic childhood memories, Roman is in charge of Thomas' knowledge of music and theater, Logan is in charge of education, Virgil is in charge of everyday memories (remember when Logan threw a laptop at Thomas' in AA to prove that point?) as well as a couple embarrassing ones from the past, Janus is in charge of forgotten/unneeded memories and Remus is in charge of all the stuff Thomas probably doesn't want to remember but will anyways because life sucks. Yeah I don't really know which ones go best for Janus and Remus but I think it would be something like that?

I like to think that Janus doesn't actually have scales. Think about how fucking funny it would be if at some point we learn that no, it's literally just makeup. He started doing it for fun but now it's become a staple of his character. He's basically cosplaying himself. (this is a joke hc, Janus with scales gave me some of my favourite angst fics to date)

I think it would be funny if Logan had a train of thought going through his room at all times. I doubt he would get the joke

Going back to my previous post, I'm still thinking about how the world might fuzz or disappear around the edges when it's too far away from Thomas. Like, think Coraline in the other dimension. The sides can go on walks but they always end up back in the same place

there are probably other thoughts i've had that I can't think of right now, but these are a couple fun ones

#sanders sides #ts sanders sides #tssides #headcannons #ty for the ask! #long post #kinda? #eh its long enough #shadow rambles